his wife! It would be very difficult, perhaps impossible, to exonerate
Cosimo from the blame of Cammilla's unfaithfulness. If she sinned, she
did so helplessly.

Alas, that she listened not only to the amorous vows of Ferdinando, but
also gave credence to his views concerning the Grand Duke and Grand
Duchess in Florence. She knew, of course, that there was no love lost
between herself and them; and she was quite ready to entertain the evil
insinuations which the late Duchess Giovanna had ventilated with
reference to Bianca.

This cabal was perfectly well known to the Grand Duke Cosimo, but he let
matters take their course; all he cared for was the embraces of his
attractive wife and the flatteries of his hypocritical son. The death of
Duchess Giovanna threw Ferdinando and Cammilla more than ever into one
another's arms. What, and if Francesco and Bianca died without male
heir! Why, on the death of Cosimo, Ferdinando and Cammilla might succeed
to the Grand Ducal throne. This was the temptation which the Cardinal
placed, like a young bud, in Cammilla's bosom. She was but human--very
human; she had been slighted by the non-allowance of rank as Grand
Duchess. Perhaps Destiny had still that distinction in reserve. She
would wait.

The pathos of Cammilla's life deepened during the last four years of
Grand Duke Cosimo's life. He became a constant sufferer with many
infirmities. The strenuous life he had lived, with its exercise of
lustful love and lurid hate, tried to the breaking point his iron
constitution. Gout was his direst torment, a malady productive of
ill-humour at its worst, and poor Cammilla, lonely wife, nurse,
companion, had none to share his impatience.

Her own health gave way under the strain, and her indisposition pointed
to apoplexy and to mental trouble. But deliverance came at last. On 20th
April 1574, Cosimo breathed his last at Poggio a Caiano, in his
fifty-fifth year. By his death-bed there watched only his chastened wife
and his sanctimonious son. Of his other surviving children,
Isabella--once his favourite--had suffered for sixteen years the
misunderstandings and the heartburnings which her heartless
marriage-contract had imposed; she was estranged from him and from
Cammilla, and from the Cardinal. Piero was a wastrel, the exponent of
his father's worst passions--Piero, "_Il Scandalezzatore_" as he was
rightly called. Francesco had borne ten years' embarrassment as
quasi-ruler of the State, subje