t she had been instrumental in the introduction into Madonna Bianca's
chamber of the newly-born son of a reputable woman, who lived with her
husband behind the _Stinche_.

No trace could be found of these humble parents of Francesco's
supposititious child, and all Ferdinando's enquiries were fruitless.
Many were the tales rife, in and out of the palaces and markets, but
neither the Grand Duke nor Bianca took any steps to refute them, and
after being, as usual, a nine days' wonder, the subject dropped,
apparently.

The Grand Duchess Giovanna gave birth, on 19th May, the following year,
to a son--a sickly child to be sure, but the undoubted heir of his
father. Ferdinando's hopes were shattered, but he had not done with
Bianca Buonaventuri. Within nine months, on 9th February, Giovanna died,
somewhat suddenly, and the Cardinal failed not to intimate that Bianca
was the cause thereof, and to name poison as her means! The truth is,
that the Grand Duchess one day getting out of her sedan-chair, slipped
upon the polished marble floor, and, being again near her confinement,
a miscarriage resulted, from which she never recovered.

Within two months of the burial of sour-tempered, unlovable Giovanna,
the Grand Duke married Bianca, Pietro Buonaventuri's widow, privately in
the chapel of the Palazzo Vecchio.

One immediate result of this marriage was the quasi-legitimisation of
the child Antonio--a vigorous youngster and certain to outlive frail
little Filippo.

Reconciliation with Venice, public marriage, and Coronation were in due
order celebrated, and Bianca Cappello, "the true and undoubted daughter
of Venice," was enthroned in the Duomo, as the true and lawful Grand
Duchess of Tuscany! Cardinal Ferdinando watched all these ceremonials
from afar--the only one of his family who declined to honour the Grand
Duke and Grand Duchess with his presence during the festivities.

Represented by an inferior official of his household, he remained in
Rome, closely shut up in his palace, a spectacle to the world at large
of ungovernable prejudice and foiled ambition. His cogitations, however,
were very grateful, for he was working out in his intriguing brain a
ready method for ridding himself, not alone of the two children, bars to
his pretensions, but of the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess also!
Ferdinando was determined to succeed Francesco as Sovereign of Tuscany,
come what might!

Never was a man more changed than the Grand Duke Fra