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construction of the new theatre and of its splendid and elaborate decorations, while the presence of the French visitors, whom the Gonzagas were especially anxious to conciliate, showed that the event was not without political significance.

That autumn Isabella gave birth to a third daughter, who received the name of Livia, but died at the age of six. Neither this child nor Leonora, who was already seven years old, appears to have interested her mother much, and she seldom mentions their names in her letters. She was, however, careful to give them an excellent education, and first Sigismondo Golfo, then Francesco Vigilio, taught Leonora Latin and grammar. The Marchesa chose these teachers herself, and would allow no carelessness or irregularity. On one occasion, when Golfo absented himself for some weeks, she sent him an order to return at once, if he did not wish to lose his situation. But all her fondest hopes centred round her little son, Federico. She watched the growth of this precious infant with the tenderest affection, and when the Marquis was absent from Mantua sent him daily reports of his little son. "I am quite well," she writes on the 3rd of July 1501, "and so is our beautiful boy, who is always asking for his Pà." Again, on the 7th of August, the proud mother writes: "To-day our little boy began to walk, and took four steps without any help; although, of course, he was carefully watched, much to our delight and his own. His steps were a little uncertain, and he looked rather like a tipsy man! When I asked him afterwards if he had any message to send his father, he

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said, Ti Pà!' so I must commend him to you as well as myself."1

The

Meanwhile political events of grave importance were taking place in other parts of Italy. Pope's daughter, Lucrezia Borgia, after the dissolution of her first marriage with Giovanni Sforza, the widower of Maddalena Gonzaga, became the wife of Alfonso, Duke of Bisceglia, an illegitimate son of Isabella's uncle, the late King Alfonso of Naples, and nephew of the reigning king, Federico. The union proved a happy one, but the unfortunate prince was so foolish as to quarrel with Cæsar Borgia, and in July 1500 he was attacked by five masked assassins as he left the Pope's rooms, and seriously wounded. Every one here," wrote Calmeta from Rome to Elisabetta Gonzaga, "knows that this is Duke Valentino's doing." A few weeks later the wounded man was strangled in his bed in the Vatican by Cæsar's guards before the eyes of his wife. "The Pope," wrote the Mantuan envoy, Cattaneo, "is very much displeased at this event, both on account of the King of Naples, and for the sake of his daughter, who is in despair." 2

66

Immediately after this deed, which excited general horror, Cæsar Borgia set out to conquer Romagna at the head of an army of 7000 men. First Pesaro, then Rimini, surrendered without a blow, and Giovanni Sforza fled to Mantua, and sought refuge in his first wife's home. Francesco received his brother-in-law kindly, but told him plainly that he could do nothing against Borgia. In spite, however, of Isabella's professions of friendship 1 Luzio, Precettori, &c., p. 37.

2 Pastor, "History of the Popes," vi. 613.

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for her son's sponsor, she could not conceal her admiration for the gallant little town of Faenza, which remained loyal to its prince, Astorre Manfredi, and alone among the cities of Romagna offered a determined resistance to the conqueror. On the 20th of April 1501 she wrote to her husband: “I rejoice to hear that the citizens of Faenza are so loyal and constant in their lord's defence, and feel that they have redeemed the honour of Italy. May God give them grace to persevere; not that I wish Duke Valentino any ill, but because neither this poor Signor nor his faithful subjects deserve such ruin. I thank Your Excellency for giving me news of the first battle, of which Messer Carlo da Sesso also informs you in the enclosed letter, which I opened in your absence." But five days after this Faenza was forced to surrender, and the brave young Manfredi was taken captive to Rome, and strangled in Castell' Sant' Angelo by Cæsar's orders. At the same time Isabella had to lament the ruin of her mother's family and the downfall of the last king of the house of Aragon. Federico's doom was already sealed. In November 1500 a secret treaty was concluded between Louis XII. of France and Ferdinand the Catholic, who agreed to divide the kingdom of Naples between them. In June a large French army crossed the Alps and marched against Naples, and a month later Gonsalvo di Cordova landed in Calabria with a Spanish force. The Pope ratified the treaty publicly, and Cæsar Borgia left his army in Romagna to join the French before Naples. After a fiercely contested battle, Gaeta and Naples opened their gates to the victors, and on the 4th 1 D'Arco, Arch. St. It., App. ii.

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Federico fled to Ischia, and abdicated his throne in favour of the French king. He retired to France, where a pension and the Duchy of Anjou were granted him, and where he spent the remaining three years of his life.

Everywhere Cæsar Borgia and his French allies were triumphant, and no one knew in which direction their arms would next be turned. The situation was an anxious one, and Isabella was greatly alarmed to hear from her father's envoy at Milan that her husband had incurred the suspicion of the French Viceroy, Cardinal d'Amboise, by his supposed intrigues with the Emperor. One day, when the Ferrarese ambassador was dining with the Viceroy, his host suddenly asked him what he thought of the Marquis of Mantua's plot to drive the French out of Italy. Then, turning to Trivulzio, the Cardinal said: "M. le Maréchal, what would you do you knew that the Signor Marchese kept a spy here to report all our actions?" "I should dismiss his ambassador at once," replied Trivulzio. And that same evening the Mantuan representative, Tosabezzi, received notice to leave Milan.1

if

Under these circumstances Francesco Gonzaga saw that his best policy was to cultivate the friendship of Cæsar Borgia, and he took care to offer no opposition to Duke Valentino's latest scheme. This was the proposal of a marriage between his sister Lucrezia and the Duke of Ferrara's eldest son, Alfonso d'Este. A few weeks after the murder of her second husband, the report of this intended alliance was already the common talk of Rome. "The Pope's daughter," wrote a German pilgrim 1 D'Arco, Arch. St. It., App. ii.

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who visited Rome in this year of Jubilee, and was grievously shocked at these scandals, "lives here in great state, and is about to marry a third husband, the first being yet alive. If one does not please her, she asks for another." In February 1501, when Isabella was spending the carnival at Ferrara, formal proposals to this effect were made to her father by the Pope's envoy. At first the proud spirit of the Este princes recoiled with horror from the thought. Not only was Lucrezia the Pope's bastard, but her own character was by no means free from stain. There might be no grounds for the horrible crimes which were freely imputed to her in Rome, but the Ferrarese ambassador reported that she had been engaged in an intrigue with a papal chamberlain named Peroto, and had given birth to a child a year after the dissolution of her first marriage. The bare idea that a woman against whom such charges could be brought, should reign in the place of the good Duchess Leonora, seemed intolerable to the Duke and his children. At first Alfonso quite declined to entertain the proposal, and Isabella regarded it with unqualified disgust, although she was too prudent to give vent to her feelings in public. But by degrees this natural repugnance melted away before the solid advantages of the proposed marriage. The Pope not only offered to give his daughter the enormous dowry of 300,000 ducats, but to reduce the yearly tribute paid by Ferrara as a fief of the Church from 400,000 ducats to a nominal sum of 60 ducats, and to surrender several important fortresses and valuable benefices to the Duke. Louis XII. warmly supported the Pope's proposals, and Ercole began to realise the substantial benefits which he and