ined over Duke Ercole in the matter of poor young Donna Maria's
betrothal, for he had other daughters to consider. Donna Isabella was
provided for, for better or for worse--alas, that the latter was to be
her sad fate--beautiful, fascinating Isabella de' Medici, but Donna
Lucrezia, nearly fifteen years of age, was the forfeit her father paid
in his gambit of Medicean aggrandisement.

In the July that followed Donna Maria's tragic death, with all the
circumstances and pomp of state ceremonial, Lucrezia de' Medici was
married to Alfonso II., Duke of Ferrara, the same prince who had been
affianced to her sister Maria.

It was not without misgivings that this step was taken: Duchess
Eleanora, in particular, expressed dissatisfaction with the match, and
feared, perhaps superstitiously, the portent of a second unlucky
alliance. Anyhow the preparations for the nuptial day, and the pageants
which accompanied it, drew off the thoughts of all from the terrible
event of Christmas.

Cosimo, however, had other and, from his own personal point of view,
more attractive objects upon which to expend thought and action. As soon
as the marriage festivities were over, he set out with a small suite of
expert surveyors and agriculturists to the Maremma. It was a peculiarly
unhealthy region, and had gone out of cultivation, and its former
inhabitants had deserted it.

The Duke determined to drain the land by cutting a canal right through
from the Arno to the sea. Next, he set to work to afforest the newly
recovered ground, to carve it out in allotments suitable for
agricultural pursuits, and to encourage the settlement of vigorous
working peasant-tenants. A certain portion of the estates he set apart
to his own use for the preservation of wild game. He rebuilt and
enlarged the ruined castle of Rosignano, ten miles from Livorno, for the
occupation of himself and his family and for his hunting associates.

At Pisa he had peculiar interests. The University, which Lorenzo "il
Magnifico" had refounded, had been abandoned by his successors and was
closed. Cosimo took the matter up: he re-established all that had been
done by his illustrious predecessor, and endowed a number of
professorial chairs--especially in chemistry, wherein he was himself an
ardent student and sapient expert--and kindred sciences, and founded
scholarships or apprenticeships for youths of every station.

The climate of Pisa suited Duchess Eleanora and young Don Giovanni-