It was late that night when Leo and Lucille
separated in the parlor below. Each had dreamed of castles in Spain, but
now it looked as if Leo and possibly Lucille, might actually possess
castles in Italy.
That night Leo told Lucille much about the princely Colonna family of
Italy, which originated in the 11th century. Pope Martin V., several
others who took part in the contest between the Guelphs and the
Ghibellines, and many others of the Colonna family had attained to
historical and literary distinction.
Lucille was interested in the story of the great naval battle of Lepanto
in which Marc Antonio Colonna aided Don Juan of Austria to gain a
world-renowned victory for Christianity against the Turks, the first
effective triumph of the cross over the crescent. Leo recited the story
of the life of the illustrious Vittoria Colonna, pictures of a bust of
whom Lucille had seen that day in Rome.
Vittoria, and the son of the Marquis of Pescara, when children four years
old, were affianced, and in their seventeenth year they were married. The
young bride bravely sent her husband to the wars with a pavilion, an
embroidered standard, and palm leaves, expressing the hope that he
would return with honors, for she was proud of the Colonna name.
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