that if you do not adopt my sentiments, you at least approve of my zeal; and that is the greatest recompense I could receive.”  He argues the question with the Emperor with great force and eloquence; and, to be sure, there never was a fairer opportunity for Charles IV. to enter Italy.  The reasons which his Imperial Majesty alleges, for waiting a little time to watch the course of events, display a timid and wavering mind.

A curious part of his letter is that in which he mentions Rienzo.  “Lately,” he says, “we have seen at Rome, suddenly elevated to supreme power, a man who was neither king, nor consul, nor patrician, and who was hardly known as a Roman citizen.  Although he was not distinguished by his ancestry, yet he dared to declare himself the restorer of public liberty.  What title more brilliant for an obscure man!  Tuscany immediately submitted to him.  All Italy followed her example; and Europe and the whole world were in one movement.  We have seen the event; it is not a doubtful tale of history.  Already, under the reign of the Tribune, justice, peace, good faith, and security, were restored, and we saw vestiges of the golden age appearing once more.  In the moment of his most brilliant success, he chose to submit to others.  I blame nobody.  I wish neither to acquit nor to condemn; but I know what I ought to think.  That man had only the title of Tribune.  Now, if the name of Tribune could produce such an effect, what might not the title of Caesar produce!”

Charles did not enter Italy until a year after the date of our poet’s epistle; and it is likely that the increasing power of John Visconti made a far deeper impression on his irresolute mind than all the rhetoric of Petrarch.  Undoubtedly, the petty lords of Italy were fearful of the vipers of Milan.  It was thus that they denominated the Visconti family, in allusion to their coat of arms, which represented an immense serpent swallowing a child, though the device was not their own, but borrowed from a standard which they had taken from the Saracens.  The submission of Genoa alarmed the whole of Italy.  The Venetians took measures to form a league against the Visconti; and the Princes of Padua, Modena, Mantua, and Verona joined it, and the confederated lords sent a deputation to the Emperor, to beg that he would support them; and they proposed that he should enter Italy at their expense.  The opportunity was too good to be lost; and the Emperor promised to do all that they wished.  This league gave great trouble to John Visconti.  In order to appease the threatening storm, he immediately proposed to the Emperor that he should come to Milan and receive the iron crown; while he himself, by an embassy from Milan, would endeavour to restore peace between the Venetians and the Genoese.

Petrarch appeared to John Visconti the person most likely to succeed in this negotiation, by his eloquence, and by his intimacy with Andrea Dandolo, who governed the republic of Venice.  The poet now wished for repose, and journeys began to fatigue him; but the Visconti knew so well how to flatter and manage him, that he could not resist the proposal.