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As for that part of your sweet and charming letter in which you say that the prayers I offer in this habit must avail more, I gladly agree, and hope that the friends who are nearest to me may receive more than others. All the same, it is devil's work to ask favours for others, even for those whom you most wish to help! but I will try to obey Your Highness, and ask boldly.""

All Rome rejoiced at the peaceful opening of the new pontificate. "Once Venus reigned, then Mars, now Pallas holds her sway," was the motto which Agostino Chigi placed on the triumphal arch which he raised in honour of the Pope's coronation. And while the Duke of Urbino, clad in deep mourning for his uncle, held the Pope's bridle as Prefect of Rome and Captain-General of the Church, the Duke of Ferrara, absolved from papal censures, and sumptuously attired in white and gold brocade, was one of the most splendid figures in the ranks of the stately procession that passed from St. Peter's to the Lateran. No one rejoiced more sincerely over his restoration to the Holy Father's favour than his sister Isabella, and, as she told her friend, the new Cardinal, she only longed for the day when she should be able to come to Rome herself and kiss the Pope's feet.

2

1 Luzio, Federico, p. 13.

2 Gregorovius, Rom, viii. 167; Roscoe, Leo X., App.

CHAPTER XXVI

1512-1513

Isabella spends the carnival at Milan-Duke Maximilian Sforza -His weakness and extravagance-The Viceroy of Naples and Cardinal Gurk at Milan-Isabella and her ladies-Her letter to the Marquis in self-defence-Brognina and Alda Boiarda dismissed from her service-Tebaldeo attacks Mario Equicola and Isabella—Indignation of the Marchesa-Her letter to Cardinal d'Este-Duchess Elisabetta's reply.

WHILE Julius the Second's life was slowly drawing to its close, and Federico Gonzaga was sharing the orgies of Cardinals and monkish buffoons in Rome, his mother was spending a gay carnival at the court of her nephew, Maximilian, Duke of Milan. The Pope lost no time in inviting the young prince to take possession of his father's duchy, and, early in the autumn, Maximilian crossed the Alps and came to Lombardy. But his formal restoration was deferred until after the Bishop of Gurk's visit to Rome. In November he paid a visit to Mantua, where the Marchesa welcomed him with the greatest affection, and a series of brilliant fêtes were held in his honour. From the first moment of their meeting, Beatrice's son seems to have become genuinely attached to his aunt, and she on her part exerted herself to rouse the weak and indolent youth to a sense of his high position and great opportunities. But Maximilian's education had been sadly neglected, and the poverty and dreariness of his long

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years of exile had produced a bad effect upon his character. He had grown up eccentric and suspicious, and was rarely seen to smile saving at the tricks of dwarfs and clowns, for whom he showed a childish passion. When he visited Mantua the follies of a certain dwarf belonging to the Marchesa, and known by the name of Nanino, pleased him better than anything else; and Lorenzo Strozzi, who had lately arrived from Rome, wrote long accounts to Federico of the freaks and escapades of this favourite buffoon. One day Nanino came to meet the Duke in episcopal vestments, with the most solemn air in the world; the next he appeared in the robes of a Venetian patrician, while his hunting exploits and hand-to-hand fight with a goat afforded the Duke unbounded amusement.1

A month later Cardinal Gurk and the Viceroy of Naples, Raimondo de Cardona, and Cardinal Schinner, the leader of the Swiss forces, all came to Milan, and took part in the Duke's state entry on the 20th of December." The Marchesa had promised her nephew to honour the New Year festivities with her presence, and gladly embraced this opportunity of pleading her brother Alfonso's cause with the Spanish and Imperial ministers. One winter evening in January, she entered Milan by torchlight, accompanied by a brilliant train of courtiers and ladies. Among them were Delia, who was for many years the object of the young Marchese di Pescara's passionate devotion; Alda Boiarda, whose name is so often mentioned in Bembo and Bibbiena's letters; and the still more fascinating Brognina, who had already won 1 Luzio, Buffoni, Nuova Antologia, 1891. 2 Prato, Cronaca Arch. St. It., iii. 309.

VOL. II.

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ISABELLA VISITS MILAN

the hearts of Gurk and Cardona at Mantua in the previous summer. A succession of banquets, jousts, comedies, and balls followed, and the gaiety of these entertainments was in no way diminished by the shells that were discharged at intervals by the guns of the French garrison which still held the Castello. "Happily, the French guns had the courtesy to cease when the tilting began!" wrote Isabella in a letter to her husband, in which she describes a tournament held in front of the Corte Vecchia, that old Sforza palace near the Duomo. But on the second day of the jousts, when the Marchese di Pescara distinguished himself by his valour, and the Duke and Marchesa were again present, a sudden bombardment from the Castello sent every one flying!' In another letter Isabella describes a sumptuous banquet and dramatic representation given by the Brescian Count Brunoro, brother of Veronica Gambara, on the 25th of January. The victory of the League and expulsion of the French were celebrated in a series of tableaux and musical recitations, and a stately oak-the emblem of the Della Rovere family-with an eagle's nest in its topmost boughs, occupied the centre of the stage. But the play itself was poor and very inferior, as Isabella told her husband, to those performed at Mantua. "I am certain," she wrote, "that any one who has seen Your Excellency's comedies and fine stage scenery must feel more ennui than pleasure at the sight of such representations as these." On this occasion the Cardinal and Viceroy openly competed for the fair maid of honour's favours. Both of them endeavoured to kiss Brognina as she entered the 1 Prato, op. cit., 310.

? D'Ancona, Teatro It., vol. ii.

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house, and Monsignore of Gurk, Isabella tells her husband, so far forgot his dignity and office as to go down on his knees before her. Another evening, when Isabella invited the Duke and his illustrious guests to a masked ball at her house, the Cardinal danced twice with Brognina, and spent most of his time in amorous discourse with her. That lady, however, made no secret of her preference for the Spanish Viceroy, who soon became her recognised lover and sent a rich present of black and crimson velvet in acknowledgment of her favours. Isabella meanwhile made use of this opportunity to gain the ear of the Emperor's favourite, and when, after supper, the guests took off their masks, she had a long talk with Cardinal Gurk on the subject of Peschiera, a fortified town on the Lake of Garda, which had formerly belonged to Mantua, and which the Gonzagas were exceedingly anxious to recover.1 Little faith, however, she owns, was to be placed in Monsignore's promises; but her efforts on behalf of her brothers proved more successful, and she was able to recover some letters written by Cardinal Ippolito, betraying his strong French sympathies, which had unluckily fallen into the hands of the papal legate. In these delicate matters Isabella had a skilful assistant in Francesco Chiericati, a clever Vicentine humanist, who was secretary to Cardinal Schinner, and afterwards rose to high favour under Leo X. and his successors. Chiericati was attached to the Gonzagas, who had shown his family much kindness, and he informed the Marchesa before her arrival of the existence of some of these letters. "After consulting Madonna Ippolita

1 Luzio, Arch. St. Lomb., 1901, p. 162.