nd ability
during the campaign, on his return to Madrid he began the evil life he
had left behind in Florence. The religiously disposed courtiers were
shocked and outraged by his enormities, and, at last, the King requested
his unwelcome visitor to go back to Tuscany.

The Grand Duke very unwillingly allowed Piero to settle once more in
Florence. His house in the Via Larga--it had been occupied by the
scapegrace assassin, Lorenzino--again was a nursery of immorality, as
well as the headquarters of the enemies of his brother. Piero became the
ally of the scheming Cardinal Ferdinando, but his depraved and evil life
was to the end given over to the basest uses of human nature, and he
died miserably, as he well deserved, in 1604, having outlived his second
wife--Beatrice, daughter of the Spanish Duke of Meneses--two years. Of
legitimate offspring he left none, but there survived him eight natural
children by two Spanish nuns in the grand ducal convent of the Santa
Assunta delle Murate.

* * * * *

After the death of Maria, his eldest daughter, Duke Cosimo centred his
paternal affection in his second daughter, Isabella Romola. She was born
in 1542, just a year younger than his eldest son, Francesco Maria. Her
Spanish name endeared her especially to the Duchess Eleanora, who built
many "_Castelli en Espana_" for her child.

The young Princess was a bonnie, precocious little girl. At her
christening it was said, greatly to his embarrassment, she kissed the
ascetic bishop who held her at the font; this was taken as an omen of
her success in the service of Prince Cupid! Brought up with her two
sisters and her brothers, Francesco and Giovanni, she very early gave
evidence of charming and peculiar talent.

Merry as a bird and playful as a kitten, the young girl was singing,
singing the livelong day, and dancing with the utmost grace and freedom.
She greatly astonished her parents by her musical gifts and by her
talent as an _improvvisatrice_. She composed, when only ten years of
age, some really excellent _canzone_ and, more than this, she set them
to her own tunes for the lute and pipe, and arranged a very graceful
ballet.

At Court, Isabella was now known as "_Bianca la Seconda_," her
attainments and her person recalling those of Bianca, "the tall
daughter" of Piero and Lucrezia de' Medici. She had, as well, a
remarkable taste for languages: she rivalled her sister Maria in Latin,
which she