Castello will be mine. And if the Duke does not
give it to me, I think he will do himself a far greater
wrong than he does me, and I should not fail to
obtain others in its stead, because every one knows
that I deserve to be rewarded by His Excellency, and
not to be deprived of what I have already.' ¹

But, in spite of the Duke's promises, Novillara was
never restored to its rightful owner, and it was not
till fifty years after his death that Francesco's son
and successor, Guidobaldo II., gave Castiglione's son
another estate in compensation for the loss of his
father's Pesaro castle. In this case, as in many
others, it was this loyal servant's fate to experience
the ingratitude of princes and to see his best services
unrequited. It was a mark of his true nobility of
soul that he still worked with the most unremitting
ardour for the master who had treated him so scurvily,
careless of reward or thanks, and, in his own words,
counting honour to be the only thing worth having in
this life.

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