Note 113 — Chapter V · THE HUSBAND AND THE VARIOUS WAYS OF SLIPPING HIS YOKE

A lady of Florence, Alessandra Bardi, on learning of the sudden death of one of her sons, wrote to another the following beautiful letter, so touching in its resignation: “My sweet son, I have learnt how, on the 23rd of last month, it pleased Him who gave me Matteo to recall him to Himself, in complete consciousness, in full possession of grace, with all the sacraments necessary to a good and faithful Christian. I have felt the bitterest grief at being deprived of such a son, and methinks his death has done me great affliction apart from filial love, and likewise to you two, my sons, now reduced to so small a band. I praise and bless the Lord for all that is His will” (Müntz, History of the Renaissance, i. 18).