had been sacked by the mob. The shops
were closed, and the houses in the principal streets were barricaded.
Terror and confusion prevailed everywhere, and Milan seemed in a state
of siege. Lodovico now took leave of his faithful servants, and solemnly
charged Bernardino da Corte to hold the Castello as a sacred trust. "As
long as the Rocca holds out, I know that I shall return; but when that
surrenders, the house of Sforza is doomed." With these words he kissed
the castellan on the cheek, and, mounted on a black horse, in the long
black mantle which he always wore since his wife's death, he rode out,
accompanied by his chief senators to the Porta Vercellina. There he
turned to his companions, and, with a noble and dignified air, thanked
them once more for their faithful services, and bade them all farewell.
"_State con Dio_--may God be with you," he said, and, with a last wave
of his hand, put spurs to his black charger and rode off.

The sun was setting in the western sky, and the sorrowing courtiers
thought that their master had gone to Como. But he alighted before the
gates of S. Maria delle Grazie, and, throwing the reins to a page,
entered the church where Beatrice was buried. There he knelt in prayer
by the tomb of the wife whom he had loved so well and mourned so
long--_la sua amantissima duchessa_--while the moments slipped away and
his servants waited anxiously outside. At length he rose from his knees,
took a last look at the fair face and form lying there in the deep
repose of death, and left the church, accompanied by the weeping friars,
who followed him with their tears and blessings to the door. Three times
he turned round, while the tears streamed down his pale face, and looked
at the stately pile, which held all that had been dearest to him in the
world--where Leonardo had painted his Last Supper, and where Bianca and
Beatrice slept together. Then, in the dusk of the summer evening, he
rode slowly back through the park and gardens of the Castello.

At break of day on the following morning, Monday, the 2nd of September,
Duke Lodovico, accompanied by his son-in-law, Galeazzo di Sanseverino,
his nephews, Ermes and the Count of Melzi, and his brother-in-law,
Ippolito d'Este, and attended by a few armed horsemen, left Milan and
rode to Como. Here the fugitives spent the night, and the duke issued a
last decree, by which he confirmed the privileges and grants of land
which he had granted to the friars of S. Ma