"God grant it! And here is one for you, whose time has not yet come to be led forth. 'Behold! I have refined thee, but not with silver'--(not in the same way, that is; not with mere physical heat)--'I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.' See! there is something that escapes us at first. God not only says He has tested us, but that He has _chosen_ us. O, blessed to be the chosen of the Lord----" "Valdés, I seek Him, but I know not that I have yet found Him----" "Signora! 'let the heart of them rejoice that _seek_ the Lord.'" While masses were being sung and said for the soul of Cardinal Ippolito, the spirit of Valdés departed without a sigh. "For so He giveth His beloved sleep." But were Giulia's affections, which had been gradually refining, then left without a human object? No. By the will of his paternal grandfather, her nephew, Vespasiano, the little Duke of Sabionetta, came into her charge; and the education of the dear little boy, now eight years old, became her care. She procured the best and most enlightened tutors for him, in Tuscan, Latin, and Greek; and despatched an envoy to Charles the Fifth, to secure for him the investiture of the state of Lombardy, and to supersede its administrators by Don Ferrante and Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga. This young boy was trained up by her in the paths of virtue and godliness; and lovingly did he repay her pains. He grew up a fine character, distinguished for liberality and intelligence; and to him the Jews owed the licence for their printing press at Sabionetta. When he died, in 1591, the line became extinct. Besides superintending Vespasiano's education, the Duchess devoted herself to visiting the sick in the hospitals, and relieving the poor with her own hands. She shunned the company of the idle and frivolous, and cultivated the friendship of the wise and good. She lived to a ripe old age, shining more and more unto the perfect day--a light in a dark place, during an age of gross corruption--unsullied by the breath of slander, and respected, in spite of her averred 'heretical pravity,' by the Romish Church. The faithful old maggior-domo, Perez, wrote thus to Vespasiano, on the 19th of April, 1566: "It appears to me that I should fail in my duty, as a servant for twenty-one years together, towards the deserving memory of the illustrious lady, my Lady Donna Giulia di Gonzaga, your aunt, if I did not offer to condole with your Excellency on her death."