iles distant, where his Majesty entertained the duke and duchess and
all their suite at dinner under a pavilion, which had been erected under
the trees. His Majesty insisted on both the duke and duchess washing
their hands with him in the same bowl, and, sitting down between them at
table, himself helped first one, then the other, from the endless
variety of dishes spread out before them. All this he did with an ease
and kindness beyond anything that I have ever seen in royal personages.
Each time the duke spoke he took off his cap, and his Majesty did the
same. After dinner they remained for some while in pleasant
conversation, and then rode all three together to another place called
Mals, one mile further off, his Majesty bearing all the expenses of the
entertainment. To-morrow night they will remain together here, and there
will be some time for discussion. I am quite sure," adds the Venetian
secretary, "after this that we shall see his Majesty in Italy next
August, and this you may hold to be absolutely certain. As for the King
of France, they do not even mention his name or think of him any more
than if he did not exist."

Although the Signoria of Venice had joined the Duke of Milan in inviting
Maximilian to come to Italy, and had promised him their assistance, they
were secretly not a little alarmed at the prospect of another foreign
invasion, fearing, as one of their chroniclers observes, that the
Germans might prove to be even greater barbarians than the French. In
the interview which Foscari had with the emperor at Mals, he endeavoured
politely to dissuade him from entering Italy with a German army; but,
as his secretary remarked, it was too late, for the Duke of Milan willed
that he should come. Nor were the jealous Venetians altogether pleased
to see the marks of friendship and confidence with which the German
emperor honoured Lodovico and his wife. The familiarity with which
Maximilian treated both the duke and duchess, and the evident pleasure
which he took in their company, seemed little short of marvellous in the
eyes of both Foscari and his secretary.

The singular charm and intelligence of Beatrice made a deep impression
upon Maximilian, who could not but contrast her brightness and
cleverness with the dulness and ignorance of his own Milanese wife. And
the duke's polished manners and cultured tastes could not fail to exert
a powerful fascination upon a monarch whose genuine love of art and
romance mad