uch of romance
to court life, and inspired men like Galeazzo and Niccolo da Correggio
with a chivalrous devotion to her person. Every one was ready to obey
her wishes, and eager to win her smiles and to earn her thanks.

Even Giangaleazzo, the feeble duke who seldom took pleasure in anything
but horses and dogs, and often treated his own wife in a brutal way,
felt the charm of this bright young creature, and was stirred out of his
usual apathy by the coming of Beatrice. In a letter which he addressed
to the Duke of Ferrara after the wedding festivities, he went out of his
way to express the affection with which this charming princess, his
wife's cousin and his uncle's wife, has inspired him.

"I cannot," he writes, "sufficiently express how much joy this marriage
has given me, and how glad I am to see the singular virtues and talents
of _Madonna la sposa_." And after formally congratulating the duke on
his daughter's marriage, and on the renewed alliance between the two
houses, he goes on to say how much he rejoices in his uncle's happiness,
which will, he feels sure, only increase his own. "For by means of this
marriage, besides the two sisters which God had already given us, we
have now gained a third, whom by God's grace we shall not love less than
the two who are ours by nature."

Giangaleazzo's own wife, Duchess Isabella, a virtuous and high-minded
princess whose own merits were sadly hampered by her husband's weakness
and folly, was much beloved by her own servants, but inherited the proud
reserve of the Aragonese race, and led a secluded existence with her
lord, who hated town life and seldom showed his face in Milan. But this
young wife of Lodovico, it was easy to see, would soon throw her into
the shade. Beatrice's presence lent a charm to the most tedious court
functions. Her high spirits and overflowing mirth threw new zest into
every pursuit. Grave senators and wise statesmen listened to her words
with interest, and grey-headed prelates tolerated her merry jokes and
smiled at her irrepressible laughter. She sang and danced, and played at
ball and rode races, and took long hunting and fishing expeditions to
the royal villas in the neighbourhood of Milan. "My wife," wrote
Lodovico to his sister-in-law three months after his marriage, "has
developed a perfect passion for horsemanship, and is always either
riding or hunting."

The regent himself was too deeply engaged in state affairs, and devoted
too much t