dismay, the
king refused to allow the young prince to return to his mother, and when
he left Milan on the 7th of November, he took the boy with him to
France, and made him Abbot of Noirmoutiers, where he lived in retirement
until, twelve years later, he broke his neck out hunting. After her
son's departure, the unhappy mother, who signed herself "_Ysabella de
Aragonia Sforcia unica in disgrazia_" in letters of this period, finally
left Milan. Early in 1500 she paid a visit to Isabella d'Este at Mantua,
and then travelled by sea from Genoa to Naples, and spent the rest of
her life in her principality of Bari. One of her daughters died as a
child; the other, Bona, was betrothed to her cousin, Maximilian Sforza,
when, in 1512, he was restored to his father's throne. It was Isabella's
cherished dream that her last remaining child should reign over the
duchy of Milan, where, after all, her own brightest days had been spent;
but before the marriage could take place, the young duke had been
compelled to abdicate his throne and taken captive to France. His
betrothed bride, Princess Bona, married Sigismund, King of Poland, in
1518, and six years later her mother died at Naples.

After Louis XII. left Milan, the severity of Trivulzio's rule, and the
violence and rapacity of the French soldiery, led to increasing
discontent among the people, who sighed for the good old days of Duke
Lodovico, when at least their life and property, and the honour of their
wives and daughters, were safe. Even on the day of the French king's
entry, Marino Sanuto remarks that Louis was displeased to find how few
of the people cried "France!" while the Venetians were greeted with
shouts of "Dogs!" and hardly dared show themselves in the streets. "We
have given the king his dinner," said a Milanese citizen; "you will be
served up for his supper!" Already, on the 21st of September, the
annalist of Ferrara wrote: "The French are hated in Milan for their
rudeness and arrogance." And a private letter, written by a Venetian
from Milan, in October, confirms Castiglione's account of the confusion
and disorder that reigned in the Castello.

"The French are dirty people. The king goes to hear mass without a
single candle, and eats alone, in the eyes of all the people. In the
Castello there is nothing but foulness and dirt, such as Signor Lodovico
would not have allowed for the whole world! The French captains spit
upon the floor of the rooms, and the soldiers ou