ys is prepared. But we are
quite sure that you will do your best to pay honour to the duchess,
since otherwise we should feel obliged to do a thing that would be
displeasing to you, and send our chamberlain to provide for her
honourable entertainment."[8]

The prior and brothers of the Certosa knew their own interest too well
not to comply with this somewhat imperious missive, and left nothing
undone which could gratify their illustrious guests. Isabella's
curiosity for the beautiful and marvellous was amply gratified, and in
Lodovico's future letters to his sister-in-law we find more than one
allusion to "our church and convent of the Certosa, which you saw when
you were at Pavia." After spending the following night at the Castello
di Pavia, the duchess and her large party embarked on the bucentaurs
that were awaiting them at the junction of the Ticino and the Po, and
reached Ferrara on the 11th of February, there to begin a new series of
splendid entertainments in honour of Don Alfonso's marriage with this
Sforza princess.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] Porro in A. S. L., ix. 501, etc.

[7] T. Chalcus, _Residua_, 90.

[8] C. Magenta, _I Visconti e Sforza nel Castello di Pavia_, i.

CHAPTER VII

Beatrice Duchess of Bari--Her popularity at the court of
Milan--Giangaleazzo and Isabella of Aragon--Lodovico's first
impressions--His growing affection for his wife--His letters to Isabella
d'Este--Hunting and fishing parties--Cuzzago and Vigevano--Controversy
on Orlando and Rinaldo--Bellincioni's sonnets.

1491

We have seen how the childhood and early youth of Beatrice d'Este had
been spent, first at her grandfather the King Ferrante's court at
Naples, afterwards in her own home at Ferrara. Under the watchful eye of
a wise and careful mother, she had been trained in all the learning and
accomplishments of the day, but had been allowed little liberty or
opportunity of revealing her strong individuality. Her charms and
talents had been thrown into the shade by the superior beauty and
intellect of the Marchioness Isabella, and until the day she landed at
Pavia she had been regarded in the comparatively insignificant light of
the younger and less gifted sister. Now all this suddenly changed. At
the age of fifteen, Beatrice d'Este found herself the wife of the ablest
and most powerful prince in Italy, released from all the restraints
hitherto imposed upon her and placed in a position of absolute freedom
and independenc