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The Marquis's first duty was to report himself to the Doge and Signory, and as soon as his health was sufficiently restored, he went to Venice on the 21st of November. Here a grand reception awaited him. At Chioggia he was welcomed by the Senate and representatives; at Malamocco the Signory and foreign Ambassadors came out to meet him in state. The great doors of St. Mark were thrown open in his honour, and after mass he was conducted up the Canal Grande on the bucentaur to his own house at San Trovaso. On the following day he appeared before the Signory, to give an account of his proceedings, and in the evening he attended the wedding of Zuan Soranzo's daughter to Giorgio Cornaro, brother of the Queen of Cyprus. Marino Sanuto, who saw the Marquis on this occasion, describes him as wearing a Spanish suit and short black beard, as he appears in Mantegna's altar-piece, and remarks that his face bore evident traces of his recent sickness.

But the sad news from Naples threw a gloom over these festivities both at Venice and Mantua. On their journey home the travellers heard that the young King Ferrante had died after a short illness, brought on by the hardships and fatigue which he had undergone in his victorious campaign against the French. Both Francesco and Isabella were much attached to their brave young cousin, who had fought so gallantly to recover his father's dominions. Solemn funeral services were held in his house at Mantua, and the Carmelite Vicar-General, Fra Pietro da Novellara, preached a Latin oration in his honour. When, a year afterwards, the dead king's sister, the widowed Duchess Isabella of Milan, wrote to ask Francesco Gonzaga for a portrait of her brother which she

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heard was in his possession, the Marchesa sent her word that her lord could not part with the picture, which was dear to him for the love which he bore to Ferrante's memory, but would have it copied for her by Francesco Bonsignori.

This sad event was soon followed by the death of Gilbert de Montpensier, who breathed his last at Pozzuoli on the 11th of November, and Isabella was called upon to console his widow, Chiara Gonzaga, while at the same time she had to condole with Antonia del Balzo, on the loss of her husband Gianfrancesco of Bozzolo. A still more tragic event darkened the Christmas festival. This was the sudden death of the Marchesa's own sister, Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Milan, and wife of Lodovico Sforza. The poor young princess, who was only twenty-one, gave birth to a still-born son on the night of the 2nd of January in the Castello of Milan, and died herself an hour afterwards. The sad news, which Francesco had to break to his wife, came as a terrible shock to Isabella, who had lately seen her sister in the bloom of youth and fulness of prosperity. At first she was overwhelmed with grief, and her husband said that he had never seen his wife so utterly broken down. "I know not," she wrote to her father, "how I can ever find comfort." Fortunately Elisabetta of Urbino had arrived at Mantua a week before, and the companionship of this beloved sisterin-law was Isabella's best consolation. When the Duchess returned to Urbino at the end of April, both Isabella and her husband accompanied her to Ferrara and spent some weeks with her father and brothers. That year the Feast of St. George was shorn of its usual splendour. There were no races

DISMISSAL OF FRANCESCO

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and no banquets or comedies. The people shared in their prince's sorrow, and Duke Ercole presented the pallium which would have been the prize of the races to the church of S. Francesco.1

On the 24th of June, the Marquis went to Venice, having received orders from the Signory to prepare

for war. But when he reached his house in San Trovaso, Zorzo Brognolo met him with the unexpected announcement of his dismissal from the post of captain-general. For some time past the Signory had entertained grave suspicions of Francesco's fidelity, and on the day before his arrival in Venice the Council of Ten finally issued a decree by which he was removed from office. At first the Marquis could hardly believe in the truth of Brognolo's announcement. He rode along the Canal Grande, Marino Sanuto tells us, "with great arrogance," and meeting the Procurator of the Republic in the church of San Giorgio Maggiore, haughtily demanded an audience from the Signory. "Every one,” adds the chronicler, “murmured at his audacity; but although he was dismissed from his post, he was suffered to remain in the city, because he was a zentiluomo of Venice, and had inherited the privilege of citizenship from his ancestors. And from the age of twenty-eight he had been captain-general, and being also related to the King of Naples and the Dukes of Milan, Ferrara, and Urbino, he enjoyed the best time of any lord in Italy. He had held this office for the space of eight years, one month, and twenty-four days, and now he says that from being the first man in Italy he has ruined himself, and this is no doubt true. But the Signory will save his salary."

1 Muratori, xxiv. 340.

2 Diarii, i. 667.

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manner.

Meanwhile Isabella, unconscious of her husband's disgrace, was spending Midsummer's day at Verona, where, by Francesco's wish, she had accepted an invitation from the Podestà to witness the jousts in honour of San Giovanni's day. The Venetian Signory were aware of her presence, and had sent orders that the Marchesa was to be honourably entertained, and was to receive 25 ducats a day for her expenses as long as she remained in Verona. After her prolonged period of mourning and seclusion, the young princess appeared once more in public with fresh brightness and charm, and rode along the lists and greeted all her friends in the most gracious Not a word was breathed in her presence as to the Marquis's disgrace, and it was only when she reached Mantua and met her husband that she heard the story from his own lips. Already the bad news had reached Ferrara.1 Alfonso d'Este galloped to Mantua to see his sister, and Isabella went back with him to take counsel with her father, while the disconsolate Marquis remained at his villa of Gonzaga, declaring loudly that his disgrace was due to the Duke of Milan's intrigues and Galeazzo Sanseverino's jealousy. "I hear," wrote Sanuto, "that he is very gloomy and goes clad in black, and wears an iron ring on his collar, which he has vowed not to lay aside until he has been on a pilgrimage to Loreto. And there is sorrow throughout the Mantovano, and the people, who had been happy and smiling before, are now sad and out of heart.” 2 It was then, in token of his grief and remorse, that Francesco adopted the device of gold faggots in a fiery crucible, with the motto, Domine probasti me et cognovisti, which figures 1 Muratori, Diario Ferrarese, xxiv. 345. 2 Diarii, i. 697.

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in the pavement of Isabella's Grotta and in the frieze of her camerini, and still adorns one of the vaulted ceilings in his favourite palace of San Sebastiano.1

All through the summer the Marquis made repeated efforts to recover the Signory's good graces. He offered to place his wife and child as hostages in their hands, and even to surrender some of his fortresses. And when he reviewed his troops on the Feast of the Assumption, he told them that they were kept for the use of the Signory, and threw them gold when they shouted Marco! But the Signory refused to see him or even accept a present from him, and were persuaded that he was secretly in league with the French king. There seems no doubt that Francesco had lately held secret communications with the French court, and in November Lodovico Sforza addressed an indignant remonstrance on the subject to Isabella, telling her that he held proofs of her husband's dealings with the French and the Florentines in his hands, and only refrained from sending them to Venice out of love and regard for her. Isabella was deeply distressed at this breach between her husband and brother-in-law, and did her best to effect a reconciliation between them, but her position was a difficult one and her path was by no means strewn with roses. To add to her family sorrows in this year of misfortunes, her brother Alfonso's wife, Anna Sforza, died on the 30th of November, after giving birth to a dead child, who was buried with her in the same grave. Alfonso was left a childless widower, and the sudden death of this gentle young princess was a fresh cause of grief to Duke Ercole and his people. A fortnight later another Este princess, the once brilliant and beautiful 1 Paolo Giovio, Imprese, p. 33.