[Footnote *235: The league of Cambrai is one of the great crimes of history. The man who devised it and urged it upon Europe was the head of European Christianity, Pope Julius II. Beside this, the sensualities and murders of the Borgia go for nothing. His policy, created by hate, succeeded in so far as it established the States of the Church and murdered Italy. Yet looking back now, we may judge of the price that has been required of the Church for that treason. Beggared of her possessions, at the mercy of the new Italian kingdom, he who sits in the seat of Julius is a prisoner in the Vatican--the prisoner of history.] Unable to hold a military command, which would have better suited his talents and tastes than the duties of Christ's vicegerent upon earth, Julius gratified his family predilections by appointing his nephew Francesco Maria to be captain-general of the ecclesiastical troops. His investiture took place in the church of S. Petronio, at Bologna, on the 4th of October, 1508, when he received the pontifical baton from the Cardinal of Pavia, a prelate whose destiny we shall find, ere long, fatally bound up in his own. But the time for active service not being yet arrived, he contented himself with a review of the forces thus placed under his charge. Being considered equal to such a command, it is not surprising he should think it time to celebrate his long-projected nuptials.[*236] On the 5th of November, Julius wrote to the Duchess Elisabetta, to send a _lettiga_ or litter, with three horses, in order to bring his bride on a visit to Urbino, where the ceremony took place on Christmas Eve, 1508.[*237] The letters, addressed to Federigo Fregoso by Bembo, who arrived on the 19th, unveil some proofs of the bridegroom's felicity which it were more decorous to pass over; but its revelations throw light upon the contrasted feelings of the still mourning court. "Our reception was truly chilling: no joy or hilarity in the palace; even in the city its wonted aspect; our happy youth himself quite frigid; but there is hope that he will become more ardent...." Writing a week after the marriage, he says that as soon as it was over, the Duke manifested the most unbounded affection, which became daily more passionate; and declares that he had never met with a more comely, merry, or sweet girl, who, to a most amiable disposition, added a surprisingly precocious judgment, which gained for her general admiration.[238] This event was hailed at Urbino with great public rejoicings and sumptuous fêtes, and the triumphal arches, theatres, and other architectural and pictorial works required for the occasion, were executed under the direction of Timoteo Vite and Girolamo Genga. In 1843 I saw, in the hands of Padre Cellani, at the Augustine convent in Pesaro, an interesting memorial of this marriage. It is a small MS. psalter, with a frontispiece illuminated in the manner of the Veronese limners, representing Nathan rebuking