"Superbo scoglio, altero e bel ricetto Di tanti chiari eroi, d'imperadori, Onde raggi di gloria escono fuori, Ch' ogni altro lume fan scuro e negletto, Se per vera virtute al ben perfetto Salir si puote ed agli eterni onori Queste più d'altre degne alme e migliori V'andran che chiudi nel petroso petto. Il lume è in te dell' armi; in te s'asconde Casta beltà, valore e cortesia, Quanta mai vide il tempo, o diede il cielo. Ti sian secondi i fati, e il vento e l'onde Rendanti onore, e l'aria tua natia Abbia sempre temprato il caldo e il gelo!" Nor did younger and gayer poets want younger and gayer beauties to inspire them than the two noble widows; for Vittoria's household comprised six or eight nobly-born girls who were being trained under her eye, and whom her conscientiousness prevented from turning over to the sole superintendence of the Mother of the maids. "You might take more interest than you do, Giulia," said she, "in the education of your damsels. It would do them good, and you, too." "Ah, nothing could be more tiresome to me," said Giulia. "I am most happy to leave them to Donna Caterina!" "I doubt, however," said Vittoria, "whether we have even the right to keep fellow-creatures about us, of like affections and passions with ourselves, without providing some legitimate outlet for them, or supplying them with sufficient motives for their restraint." "My girls seldom go into passions," said Giulia; "and I should think it impertinent to inquire into their affections." "Why now, you incorrigible Giulia, did not you tell me of your fits of suppressed laughter while you were overhearing (actually eaves-dropping) that love dialogue between Tebaldo and Isaura? and of your laughing at her to her face, afterwards, in the presence of the other girls?" "I gave her a pearl necklace," said the Duchess. "Not till she married, months afterwards." "Well, I own I let myself down on that occasion." "As to letting yourself down, it is your keeping yourself up that I complain of--" "O, what a beautiful butterfly!--" "My dear Giulia, _don't_ run after it and put yourself in a fever. You are not quite a child now!" "No, but I was a child once; and when I was a child-Duchess of thirteen, I thought that if I did not keep my maids at a distance, they would not respect me. And my mother's word had always been, 'Never associate, child, with servants.'" "Servants and slaves, that may apply to very well," said Vittoria, who had not surmounted class-prejudices, "but your maids-of-honour are well-born, and though for a time they occupy subordinate positions, eventually they will marry respectably, it is to be hoped."