In 1404 the inhabitants of Mantua took refuge within the fortress of Villafranca to protect themselves against the forces of Galeazzo Gonzaga, who was determined to become lord of Mantua, and whose rule met with bitter opposition. The men of Mantua set fire to their houses and fled with their wives and children and chattels to the rock of Villafranca. Gonzaga irritated at this opposition resolved to quell it and assaulted the fort with violence. In vain he tried every artifice that strength and ingenuity could suggest. His forces were driven back at every point. He lost heavily, and retired at length after three days of uninterrupted attack to Vigasio, resolved to return with renewed forces and take vengeance on the bold defenders of their homes and hearths. Other sieges took place at Villafranca often and again in the course of the fifteenth century, but neither then nor in later times were its strongholds or towers destroyed by foe or fire, and it stands to this day a marvel of strength and resistance, its sternness softened by the nursery gardens kept within its courtyards where the grace and beauty of vegetable life contrast in soft and gentle harmony with the solidity and masonic craft of bygone ages. At a distance of five miles from Villafranca is the castle of Valeggio on the banks of the Mincio. It was either built or rebuilt by Cangrande II. della Scala, and may very probably have been set up by that prince as the complement to the great wall of the “Serraglio” which was finished during his reign. It boasts a number of subterranean passages, vaults, and dungeons, and together with Borghetto, which stands on the opposite height, occupies an important military position, commanding the passage of the Mincio. The view from the castle terrace is not only grand, but full of interest and association for every lover of Italian history and of Italian independence. On one side is to be seen a stately old square tower, which stands above the memorable field of Solferino. On another side is the Tower of San Martino, and again to the West rises high in the distance the column that marks where the bones of the dead were laid to rest after the “day of pride and sorrow” of Custozza. Valeggio is celebrated too for the marvellous stone bridge constructed by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, duke of Milan at the close of the fourteenth century to strengthen himself against Francesco Gonzaga, lord of Mantua. To relate all the intrigues and quarrels which led to the erection of this bridge over the Mincio would be out of place here; suffice it to say that it was laid on a Roman substructure, and had high gateways with towers at each end, while the arches of the bridge spanned the river. Only one arch remains now, but the ruin shows what a colossal work it was, worthy even in its decay of the titles of “famous,” “gigantic,” “most noble,” and “magnificent” that have been lavished on it by different writers. The ulterior purpose of the bridge is yet a matter of