memory behind them, alike in the old Mantuan city on the
banks of the classic Mincio, where Isabella's presence lingers like some
delicate perfume about the _Camerini_ of the ancient Castello, and in
that grander and more splendid court where Beatrice reigned for a few
brief years by the Moro's side at Milan.

CHAPTER IV

Isabella d'Este--Lodovico Sforza delays his wedding--Plot against his
life--Submission of Genoa--Duke Gian Galeazzo--The Sanseverini brothers
--Messer Galeazzo made Captain-General of the Milanese armies--His
marriage to Bianca Sforza--Marriage of Gian Galeazzo to Isabella of
Aragon--Wedding festivities at Milan--Lodovico draws up his marriage
contract with Beatrice d'Este.

1485-1490

Isabella d'Este, the eldest of Ercole's and Leonora's two daughters,
early displayed the striking beauty and great qualities that
distinguished her in after-years. Her regular features and delicate
colouring, her ready wit and gracious manners, charmed all the visitors
to Ferrara. The letters of princes and ambassadors were full of her
praises. The Mantuan envoy who was sent to Ferrara in 1480, to arrange
the terms of the marriage contract, was amazed at the little bride's
precocity. The six-year-old child not only danced charmingly before him,
but conversed with a grace and intelligence which seemed to him little
short of miraculous. All her teachers told the same story. Whatever
Madonna Isabella did was well done. Her quickness in learning, her
marvellous memory, and application to her studies were the theme of
every one at court. She was the apple of her father's eye, her mother's
most sweet and cherished companion--"_la mia carissima e dolce figliuola
sopra altre_." When she married and left home for Mantua, her poor old
tutor shed tears at the loss of his favourite pupil, and wandered
through the castle recalling her every word and movement; while for
weeks the good duchess could not bear to enter the room or open the
windows of the room which her darling child had occupied, and which was
now left empty and desolate.

By the side of this brilliant creature, her younger sister, the little
Beatrice, passed comparatively unnoticed. Her name is scarcely ever
mentioned in the records of the period. Yet she was only a year younger
than Isabella, and if all had gone well, the double wedding of the two
sisters was to have been celebrated at the same time in February, 1490.
But Lodovico Sforza had shown no incl