een interest in the things
ennobled by history and cared for by grown-up men. This dawn of a
higher consciousness found a congenial sphere in the city of the soul.
With what absorbing eagerness his young mind would be drawn to the
study of the immortal deeds, which were the inheritance of his race,
on the very spot where they were done. He would behold with his eyes
the glorious things of which he had heard. There would be much that
would shock and disappoint him when he came to be familiar with it.
Many of the ancient monuments had been destroyed; and many of the
ancient sites, especially the Forum and the Palatine, were deserted
wastes which had not yet yielded up their buried treasures of art to
the pick and spade of the antiquarian. The ravages inflicted by the
ferocious hordes of the Constable Bourbon in 1527 had not yet been
obliterated by the restorations and repairs undertaken by Pope Paul
III. The city had lost much of its ancient glory, and had not yet
exchanged its gloomy medieval aspect for that of modern civilisation.
But, in spite of every drawback, he could not sufficiently admire the
buildings and the sites which bore witness of all that was grandest in
human history. Along with a young relative, Christopher Tasso, he
pursued his classical studies in the midst of all these stimulating
associations under the tutorship of Maurizio Cattaneo, the most
learned master in Italy. The companionship of a youth of his own age
did him a great deal of good. It satisfied his affections, it saved
him from the loneliness to which his father's ill-health at the time
would otherwise have consigned him, and it spurred him on to a
healthful exercise of his mental powers. For a short time he led a
comparatively happy life in Rome. His father's prospects had somewhat
improved. Cardinal Caraffa, who was a personal friend of his, ascended
the pontifical throne under the name of Paul IV.; and as they were on
the same political side, he hoped that his fortunes would now be
retrieved. But this gleam of prosperity speedily vanished. The
imperial enmity, which had been the cause of all his previous
misfortunes, continued to pursue him like a relentless fate. Philip
II. of Spain and the Pope having quarrelled, the formidable Duke of
Alba, the new Viceroy of Naples, invaded the Papal States, took Ostia
and Tivoli, and threatened Rome itself. With extreme difficulty
Bernardo Tasso managed to make his escape to Ravenna, with nothing
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