t not only very large
fortifications wherewith to defend themselves against the Turks, but
also two cities, so as to unite many villages that were there into one
or two places. Whereupon the Duke, whom the above-named knights in two
months had not been able to induce to grant them Bartolommeo, although
they had availed themselves of the good services of the Duchess and
others, finally complied with their request for a fixed period, at the
entreaty of a good Capuchin father, to whom his Excellency bore a very
great affection, and refused nothing that he asked; and the artifice
that was used by that holy man, who made it a matter of conscience
with the Duke, saying that it was in the interest of the Christian
Republic, was not otherwise than highly commendable and worthy of
praise. And thus Bartolommeo, who had never received any favour
greater than this, departed with the above-named knights from Pesaro
on the 20th of January, 1558; but they lingered in Sicily, being
delayed by the fortune of the sea, and they did not reach Malta, where
they were received with rejoicing by the Grand Master, until the 11th
of March. Having then been shown what he was to do, he acquitted
himself so well in those fortifications, that it could not be
expressed in words; insomuch that to the Grand Master and all those
noble knights it appeared that they had found another Archimedes, and
this they proved by making him most honourable presents and holding
him, as a rare master, in supreme veneration. Then, after having made
the models of a city, of some churches, and of the palace and
residence of the same Grand Master, with most beautiful invention and
design, he fell sick of his last illness, for, having set himself one
day in the month of July, the heat in that island being very great,
between two doors to refresh himself, he had not been there long when
he was assailed by insufferable pains of the body and by a cruel flux,
which killed him in seventeen days, to the infinite sorrow of the
Grand Master and all those most honourable and valiant knights, to
whom it appeared that they had found a man after their own hearts,
when he was snatched from them by death. The Lord Duke of Urbino,
having been advised of this sad news, felt indescribable sorrow, and
bewailed the death of poor Genga; and then, having resolved to
demonstrate to the five children whom he had left behind him the love
that he bore to him, he took them under his particular and l