roposition,
asserting his intention not to marry. By dint of ample offers of
enlarged pecuniary emoluments and by tempting promises of exculpation
from the consequences of his lustful extravagances, Piero at last
yielded an unwilling assent to the betrothal. How far he was influenced
by threats we can well imagine.

Piero de' Medici and Eleonora de Garzia de Toledo were married in the
private chapel of the Pitti Palace on the morning of 21st April 1571.
That very night his young wife revealed the fact that she was
_enceinte_, and she named his father, Duke Cosimo, as her ravisher! The
Prince was too much taken up with his own pleasure to care very much
about this revelation: he would go his own way, and his wife might go
hers--such was the morality of the day! Still, this discovery was the
first page in the tragic history of beautiful Eleanora di Piero de'
Medici.

Very shortly after the marriage Eleanora, who was then at Pisa, was
delivered of a child, whom, in the absence of her husband, she named
Cosimo--a significant nomenclature! She caused letters to be written to
the Grand Duke Francesco, her brother-in-law, to acquaint him with the
birth of the child, and to crave protection for _his father's son_!

Following the unhappy example of Paolo d'Orsini and Isabella de' Medici,
and being absolutely their own masters, Piero and Eleanora agreed to
live separate lives--he, a boy of seventeen and she just eighteen. What
more disastrous beginning can be imagined for two young wedded lives,
and yet it was inevitable. Piero did not care a bit for Eleanora, and
Eleanora hated and despised Piero.

The marriage was but a brief break in evil associations, for the boy
returned to his boon-companions in the city, and the girl sought the
solace of her lovers. It was in vain the Grand Duke pointed out the
errors of their ways--Piero retorted with a "_Tu quoque frater_!" He had
every bit as much right to console himself with a mistress, one or more,
as Francesco did with his "_Cosa Bianca_!" Moreover, he became urgent in
his demand for a still more liberal allowance, which the Grand Duke
weakly conceded--as he had done in the case of his other grasping
brother, the Cardinal.

Everything and everybody at the Court of Florence seemed to be demented.
To enjoy the basest pleasures and to indulge in the foulest passions,
such was the way of the world; and Eleanora was but a child in years,
but a woman in experience--and that experien