ended an
Office said for the repose of the late duchess in the church of the
Dominicans, which was all hung with black, and all the clergy,
magistrates, and courtiers were there, carrying lighted torches; all the
people wore black, and the shops were closed as if it were Christmas,
and more than 400 Masses were said for the repose of her soul, and 660
candles were burnt that day. It was a fine day, but a great quantity of
wax tapers were used for this funeral service. As for the Duke of Milan,
I will say nothing, because the things he does sound incredible to those
who have not seen them. Certainly the extraordinary honours which he
pays his dead wife show how dearly he loved her. She has left him two
little sons. And all Ferrara sorrows for her death, and I saw many
weeping. And so goes this ribald world."[68]

That year no races were held on St. George's Day, at Ferrara, and the
_pallium_ usually given to the winner was presented by Duke Ercole to
the Franciscan Church.

At Mantua there was the same general lamentation, and the same funeral
Masses were offered up for the young duchess, who had not yet completed
her twenty-second year. Isabella's own sorrow was great.

"When I think," she wrote to her father, on the 5th of January, "what a
loving, honoured, and only sister I have lost, I am so much oppressed
with the burden of this sudden loss, that I know not how I can ever find
comfort."

And the marquis, writing to Duke Lodovico, says that he had never seen
his wife so completely overwhelmed with grief; and that she who has
always shown herself full of strong and manly courage in adversity, is
now utterly broken down. On hearing this, Lodovico roused himself from
the torpor of his grief to try and comfort his sister-in-law, and sent
her an affectionate letter by one of his secretaries, begging her to
seek the consolation which he himself could not find, and telling her
how much he thought of her, even though his own grief and bitterness of
soul made it impossible for him to write with his own hand. From all
sides letters of condolence flowed in. Elegies and Latin verses recalled
the charms and talents of Beatrice and lamented the hard fate which had
snatched her away in the flower of life. Among these poetical tributes,
Niccolo da Correggio's sonnet on seeing a portrait of the late duchess
is perhaps the best.

"Se a li occhi mostri quel che fosti viva
Morti lor, come te, nulla vedranno
Ma le parte invi