[Illustration:  NICE.]

The next year was memorable in our poet’s life for the birth of his daughter Francesca.  That the mother of this daughter was the same who presented him with his son John there can be no doubt.  Baldelli discovers, in one of Petrarch’s letters, an obscure allusion to her, which seems to indicate that she died suddenly after the birth of Francesca, who proved a comfort to her father in his old age.

The opening of the year 1343 brought a new loss to Petrarch in the death of Robert, King of Naples.  Petrarch, as we have seen, had occasion to be grateful to this monarch; and we need not doubt that he was much affected by the news of his death; but, when we are told that he repaired to Vaucluse to bewail his irreparable loss, we may suppose, without uncharitableness, that he retired also with a view to study the expression of his grief no less than to cherish it.  He wrote, however, an interesting letter on the occasion to Barbato di Sulmona, in which he very sensibly exhibits his fears of the calamities which were likely to result from the death of Robert, adding that his mind was seldom true in prophecy, unless when it foreboded misfortunes; and his predictions on this occasion were but too well verified.

Robert was succeeded by his granddaughter Giovanna, a girl of sixteen, already married to Andrew of Hungary, her cousin, who was but a few months older.  Robert by his will had established a council of regency, which was to continue until Giovanna arrived at the age of twenty-five.  The Pope, however, made objections to this arrangement, alleging that the administration of affairs during the Queen’s minority devolved upon him immediately as lord superior.  But, as he did not choose to assert his right till he should receive more accurate information respecting the state of the kingdom, he gave Petrarch a commission for that purpose; and entrusted him with a negotiation of much importance and delicacy.

Petrarch received an additional commission from the Cardinal Colonna.  Several friends of the Colonna family were, at that time, confined in prison at Naples, and the Cardinal flattered himself that Petrarch’s eloquence and intercession would obtain their enlargement.  Our poet accepted the embassy.  He went to Nice, where he embarked; but had nearly been lost in his passage.  He wrote to Cardinal Colonna the following account of his voyage.

“I embarked at Nice, the first maritime town in Italy (he means the nearest to France).  At night I got to Monaco, and the bad weather obliged me to pass a whole day there, which by no means put me into good-humour.  The next morning we re-embarked, and, after being tossed all day by the tempest, we arrived very late at Port Maurice.  The night was dreadful; it was impossible to get to the castle, and I was obliged to put up at a little village, where my bed and supper appeared tolerable from extreme weariness.  I determined to proceed by land; the