nd Aldringher had so
thoroughly accomplished his part of the spoliation, that the Duke
Charles, returning after the withdrawal of the Germans, could not find
in the Ducal Palace so much as a bench to sit upon. He and his family
had fled half naked from their beds on the entry of the Germans, and,
after a pause in the citadel, had withdrawn to Ariano, whence the
Duke sent ambassadors to Vienna to expose his miserable fate to
the Emperor. The conduct of Aldringher was severely rebuked at the
capital; and the Empress sent Carlo's wife ten thousand zecchini, with
which they returned at length to Mantua. It is melancholy to read how
his neighbors had to compassionate his destitution: how the Grand Duke
of Tuscany sent him upholstery for two state chambers; how the Duke
of Parma supplied his table-service; how Alfonso of Modena gave him
a hundred pairs of oxen, and as many peasants to till his desolated
lands. His people always looked upon him with evil eyes, as the cause
of their woes; and after a reign of ten years he died of a broken
heart, or, as some thought, of poison.

Carlo had appointed as his successor his nephew and namesake, who
succeeded to the throne ten years after his uncle's death, the
princess Maria Gonzaga being regent during his minority. Carlo II.
early manifested the amorous disposition of his blood, but his
reign was not distinguished by remarkable events. He was of imperial
politics during those interminable French-Austrian wars, and the
French desolated his dominions more or less. In the time of this
Carlo II., we read of the Jews being condemned to pay the wages of
the Duke's archers for the extremely improbable crime of killing some
Hebrews who had been converted; and there is account of the Duchess
going on foot to the sanctuary of Our Lady of Grace, to render thanks
for her son's recovery from a fever, and her daughter's recovery from
the bite of a monkey. Mantua must also have regained something of its
former gayety; for in 1652 the Austrian Archdukes and the Medici spent
Carnival there. Carlo II. died, like his father, with suspicions of
poisoning, and undoubted evidences of debauchery. He was a generous
and amiable prince; and, though a shameless profligate, was beloved by
his subjects, with whom, no doubt, his profligacy was not a reproach.

Ferdinand Carlo, whose ignoble reign lasted from 1665 to 1708, was
the last and basest of his race. The histories of his country do not
attribute a sing