not a shadow of interest in it.  He had sold the fortress of Casale to the French in 1681, feigning that they had taken it from him by fraud:  and now he declared that he was forced to admit eight thousand French and Spanish troops into Mantua.  Perhaps indeed he was, but the Emperor never would believe it; and he pronounced Ferdinand guilty of felony against the Empire, and deposed him from his duchy.  The Duke appealed against this sentence to the Diet of Ratisbon, and, pending the Diet’s decision, made a journey of pleasure to France, where the Grand Monarch named him generalissimo of the French forces in Italy, though he never commanded them.  He came back to Mantua after a little, and built himself a splendid theatre,—­the cheerful Duke.

But his end was near.  The French and Austrians made peace in 1707; and next year, Monferrato having fallen to Savoy, the Austrians entered Mantua, whence the Duke promptly fled.  The Austrians marched into Mantua on the 29th of February, that being leap-year, and Ferdinand came back no more.  Indeed, trusting in false hopes of restoration held out to him by Venice and France, he died on the 5th of the July following, at Padua,—­it was said by poison, but more probably of sin and sorrow.  So ended Ducal Mantua.

The Austrians held the city till 1797.  The French Revolution took it and kept it till 1799, and then left it to the Austrians for two years.  Then the Cisalpine Republic possessed it till 1802; and then it was made part of the Kingdom of Italy, and so continued twelve years; after which it fell again to Austria.  In 1848, there was a revolution, and the Austrian soldiers stole the precious silver case that held the phial of the true blood.  Now at last it belongs to the Kingdom of Italy, with the other forts of the Quadrilateral—­thanks to the Prussian needle-gun.