residency of Messer Roberto de'
Adimari, the Chancellor of the Monte de' Pieta, for the administration
of the one hundred and four thousand gold florins--the fortune left by
Duke Cosimo to the Lady Cammilla, which produced an annual income of
four thousand eight hundred gold florins a year, equal to about L2000.

Cammilla settled down as best she could to a life of leisured ease--a
lonesome woman, a prisoner under close observation. News of the outside
world she had, and when the report of the horrors of the year 1576
reached her, she was prostrated with grief. Indeed, her time seems to
have been spent with repining, weeping and sickness--a piteous existence
for a young woman of twenty-seven.

At length Cammilla braced herself to bear her disappointments, her
trials, her imprisonment, with fortitude, and, like the good woman she
really was, she set to work to occupy her time, and that of her suite,
in useful and interesting occupations. Gardening and the care of flowers
attracted her, and soon the cloisters of the convent were converted into
bowers of roses and myrtles.

Her ladies and the nuns also, she encouraged in all elegant
handicrafts--silk-embroidery, lace-making, and other stitchery. The
results of their industry procured immediate custom, and the noble
cloths and lustrous silks of Santa Monica, with the Lady Cammilla's
initials attached, became famous far and near. These objects consisted
of pillow-cases, screens, portieres, decorative panels, banners,
scarves, cushions, handkerchiefs, bodices and various other details of
feminine attire, with rich vestments for the clergy, and sumptuous
altar-cloths.

The Grand Duchess Bianca, who, with characteristic sweetness and
generosity, had all along sympathised with poor Lady Cammilla, was the
best customer of the convent industries, and, moreover, she frequently
visited the gentle prisoner, and showed her many charming attentions.
For two Medici brides, also, Cammilla superintended the preparation of
trousseaux--her own daughter Virginia, Duke Cosimo's child, and the
Grand Duke's eldest daughter, Maria, who married King Henry IV. of
France.

Another sort of employment found in the Lady Cammilla an earnest and
skilful directress, namely, the manufacture of sweetmeats, preserves,
compotes, pastries, and every sort of delectable confectionery. Perfumes
and liqueurs--usually the piquant produce of monasteries--were also
cunningly extracted by Cammilla's subtle form