piness. I only hope that
you may soon receive tidings of the recovery of Novara, and begging you
to keep me informed of your successes, and to commend me cordially to my
sister the duchess,

"I remain, your daughter and servant,
ISABELLA DA ESTE."[61]

Written with my own hand in Mantua on the 16th of July, 1495."

The siege of Novara, where the Duke of Orleans had been beleagured since
the middle of June, was now the centre of interest in Lombardy.
Immediately after Fornovo, the Count of Caiazzo's cavalry had joined his
brother Galeazzo's force before Novara, and on the 19th of July the
Marquis of Mantua encamped under the walls with the Venetian army. The
garrison of the besieged city was six or seven thousand strong, and well
provided with arms and ammunition, but already supplies of food were
scarce, and men and horses were dying of sickness and hunger. Some
dissensions having arisen between Francesco Gonzaga and the other
leaders as to the conduct of the siege, the Duke of Milan himself
visited the camp of the league on the 3rd of August, bringing with him,
says Guicciardini, his beloved wife--"_la sua carissima consorte_"--who
was his companion "no less in matters of importance than in actions
familiar, and who on this occasion, it is said, chiefly by her advice
and counsel brought the captains to an agreement." A council of war was
held, and Lodovico's recommendation to blockade the town instead of
carrying it by assault was finally adopted. On the 5th of August the
duke and duchess were present at a grand review of the whole army,
which, with Galeazzo's troops and the German and Swiss reinforcements,
now amounted to upwards of forty thousand men. Never in the memory of
man, say the chroniclers, had so great and splendid an army been seen in
Italy as that which, with flying colours and beating drums, to the sound
of trumpets and martial music, marched past the chariot of Duchess
Beatrice. First came the hero of Fornovo, Francesco Gonzaga, at the head
of his troop of horse, mounted on magnificent chargers, "a sight
admirable to behold;" then the infantry, all in excellent order, led by
their different Condottieri, in glittering armour; afterwards the
artillery, firing big guns, which seemed to rend the air; then the
Stradiots armed with lances, targets, and scimitars, and the Venetian
cross-bowmen and light cavalry. These were followed