nna's
marriage with the heir of the house of Este had always been one of the
objects of her fondest wishes, and now she gave Duchess Leonora and her
daughters a cordial welcome to her son's court.

On the following day the marriage of Alfonso d'Este and the princess
Anna was privately solemnized in the ducal chapel, but the final nuptial
benediction was deferred until their return to Ferrara, a month later.
Meanwhile the bride's sumptuous trousseau and jewels, as well as the
splendid presents received by her, were displayed during the next week
in the Castello, before the courtiers who came to pay their homage to
the newly wedded Duke and Duchess of Bari. Of Anna Sforza herself we
hear little, but her beauty and gentleness are praised by more than one
contemporary chronicler, and endeared her especially to her uncle
Lodovico, who was sincerely grieved by her early death. She and her
husband paid frequent visits to Milan after her marriage, and were very
happy in the society of Beatrice, whom she only survived a few months,
dying at the birth of her first babe, to the great sorrow of her
father-in-law, Duke Ercole. "She was very beautiful and very charming,"
writes the Ferrarese diarist, "and there is little to tell about her,
because she lived so short a time."

The most splendid _fetes_ were yet to come. On the 24th of January, the
day after Alfonso and Anna's wedding, three tribunals were erected on
the piazza, the one occupied by a group of heralds and trumpeters, the
other loaded with precious bowls and dishes of gold and silver plate,
the gifts of the magistrates of Milan and other cities to Signor
Lodovico and his bride. The new duchess, accompanied by the other
princes and princesses, arrayed in their richest robes and literally
blazing with precious jewels, writes an eye-witness, ascended the third
tribunal erected in the centre, and received the homage of the deputies
of the city; after which two cavaliers, a Visconti and a Suardi, bending
on one knee before the bride, took from her hand two lengths of cloth of
gold, which were hung in the courtyard, as prizes to be given to the
victor in the tournament. That evening two hundred Milanese ladies of
high rank were invited to the great ball, or _festa per le donne_, given
in the Sala della palla. On this occasion peasant girls from all parts
of Italy, clad in the red, white, and blue of the Sforza colours, danced
before the court, and "the palm of Terpsichore," w