the necessite present from the
disposition of the laws--as the laws themselves do suffer to constraine
Lodovic, for the better stay of the commonweale, to suffer that unto him
might be transported the title and dignitie of Duke, a burden very
weightie, in so dangerous a season; with the which colour, honestie giving
place to ambition, the morning following, making some show of resistance,
he tooke upon him the name and armes of the Duke of Milan."

The Florentine historian's account of the transaction is accurate in all
but the last particular. Lodovico was indeed proclaimed duke in his
nephew's stead, and, clad in a mantle of cloth of gold, rode that
afternoon through the streets of the city, and visited the church of S.
Ambrogio, to give thanks for his accession to the throne. The ducal
sword and sceptre were borne before him by Galeazzo Visconti, the bells
were rung, and the trumpets sounded, while the people hailed him with
shouts of _Duca! Duca! Moro! Moro!_ But he was careful to style himself
Lodovicus Dux, and would not assume the title of Duke of Milan until he
had received the imperial privileges, confirming his election and
granting him the investiture of the duchy. These he lost no time in
securing. Already a few weeks before this, Maximilian, mindful of his
engagements at the time of his wedding, had sent his wife's uncle the
diploma granting him the desired investiture for himself and his sons,
both legitimate and illegitimate, in succession. The original deed has
never been discovered, but, according to Corio, the diploma was granted
on the 5th of September at Antwerp, with the express stipulation that it
was not to be published until after the Feast of St. Martin. This
diploma must have reached Lodovico a week or two before his nephew's
death, and had been kept secret, in obedience to Maximilian's desires.
That memorable day when he rode through the streets of Milan,
accompanied by the ambassadors of Florence and Ferrara, he said in reply
to the congratulations of the latter, our old friend Giacomo Trotti, "In
another month you will hear greater news." "I verily believe you," said
the Florentine, Pietro Alamanni, who recorded these words, to Piero de'
Medici, "that he means to make himself greater still, and dreams of a
kingdom of Insubria and Liguria." And Donato de' Preti evidently thought
the same. "Signor Lodovico," he wrote to Isabella d'Este, "is not yet
called Duke of Milan, but merely duke, and al