The Doge and his counsellors were in a quandary, and Dandolo was tearing his hair. Sanudo informs us that ‘there was much noise in the council’ that morning, and it is easy to believe that he was telling the truth. Almost half of the grave magistrates were in favour of leaving the Countess with her husband; the rest, with a very small majority, voted that she must quit the prison. The motion passed, but it was one thing to decide what she should do, and quite another thing to make her do it. She declared that since she was inside the tower, no power on earth should get her out of it, and she defied the Doge, the Council of Ten, and all their works. Before such portentous obstinacy the government of Venice retired in stupefaction, and she was left in peace. But she was human, after all, and under prolonged imprisonment her health broke down, and she was obliged to leave the tower each year to go to the waters of Abano; but even then she refused to go out until a formal promise had been given her that she should be allowed to return immediately after the cure. No doubt it was owing to her presence that Frangipane’s confinement became by degrees less rigorous, and that he was even allowed to watch the procession of Corpus Domini from the balcony of the Library. Apollonia had come in January 1516, and the pair were not liberated till more than two years later. Germany, France, and Venice signed a truce of five years, and agreed to exchange prisoners and give hostages on the thirty-first of July 1518. Francis I. asked that Germany should hand him over Frangipane as security for keeping the peace, promising that he should not be imprisoned, but should be merely a prisoner of the King on parole. It was not freedom yet, but such a change was more than welcome, and the negotiations with the Signory for Frangipane’s delivery were completed on the third of September. The words he wrote in the embrasure of the window of his prison may still be read, says Dr. Thode, who copied the inscription which I reproduce:-- Fo inchluso. qua. in. torise ... fina.. terzo zorno de. setembro. del. M.D. XVIII. io. Christoforo. Frangepanibus Chonte. de. Veglia. Senia. et Modrusa Et io. Apollonia. Chonsorte. de sopradicto signor. chonte. Vene. far. chompagnia. a. quelo. adi. XX. Zenar. MDXVI perfina sopra dicto setembro. Chi mal. e. ben. non. sa. patir. a. grande honor. may. poi. venir. anche. ben. ne. mal. de. qui. per. sempre. non. dura. I translate literally as follows:-- I was shut up here in the Torrisella till the third day of September of 1518, Christopher of the Frangipane, Count of Veglia, Senia, and Modrusa. And I, Apollonia, wife of the aforesaid lord Count, came to keep him company on the twentieth of January 1516 until the said September. ‘Who cannot bear good and ill fate, Will never come to honour great.’ Also, Nor good nor evil lasts for ever here.