290/421 The affair was completed during the few days that Petrarch spent at Mantua. The Emperor strongly wished that he should be present at the signature of the treaty; and, in fact, though he was not one of the envoys from Milan, the success of the negotiation was generally attributed to him. A rumour to this effect reached even Avignon, where Laelius then was. He wrote to Petrarch to compliment him on the subject. The poet, in his answer, declines an honour that was not due to him. |