"In banishment I grew And rigid want, instructed by our strange Disastrous flight to shed untimely tears, Nor childhood's pleasure knew; But bitterness to me of chance and change Brought immature the bitterness of years. Despoiled and bare, his feeble age appears Before me still. Alas! and is my store Of griefs become so scanty, that my own Are not enough to moan? That others than myself I must deplore? But seldom, though I bid, will come the sigh, Or from these wells the gushing water spring, In measure suited to my suffering. Dear father; now my witness from the sky, Whom sick thou knowest how I moaned, and dead Poured on thy grave and bed My ardent heart; thee, in thy mansions high All bliss beseems, and unalloyed with pain; Only for me the sighs and tears remain."[193] [Footnote 193: GLASSFORD, p. 203.] The morbid feeling and heart-stricken melancholy which, in the language of Gibbon, "disordered his reason without clouding his genius," and which thus exaggerated the trials of his early life, gave way to another train of thought in the following letter, addressed by him, about the same time, to Duke Francesco Maria, which we insert as the most satisfactory record left us of the friendship and protection bestowed on him by that Prince. "TASSO TO THE DUKE OF URBINO. "If any action of mine has tended to confirm the rumour of my insanity, it surely was my directing my steps after my flight otherwise than to the court of your Excellency. For certainly I could not have repaired elsewhere without some degree of danger, or at all events some indignity and inconvenience; nor could I hope to find in any other quarter more acquaintance with my real position, nor greater courtesy, knowing no prince more generous, more efficiently compassionate to my misfortunes, or more prompt in the protection of my innocence. Hence, to pass by an asylum near and secure, as well as suitable and honourable, in order to make my way, without comfort, or, at all events, with little credit, to a distant and less safe place, was, if not a sign of folly, at least a proof of impudence and stupidity. Notwithstanding all this, unlike other men who blush and repent when made aware of a blunder, I derive from my ill advised step pleasure and comfort rather than shame and regret, because, being conducted, not where I desired, but whither I ought to go, and having there found the haven which I had supposed far off, across the high seas, I clearly perceive that my steps have been guided by wisdom from on high. And it must be much more pleasing to me to have been brought hither by divine Providence than by human prudence, seeing how much the more infallible guide is the latter to the best appointed end.