ly ten, was indifferent to such matters, but Duchess
Isabella of Bracciano was intensely interested, an amiable go-between
her father and Don Francesco. Cosimo did nothing with respect to
removing the reproach attached to his intrigue with Eleanora degli
Albizzi, and, consequently, when in December 1566, a little girl was
born to him, the whole of Florence was conventionally shocked. Duchess
Giovanna, Don Francesco's sanctimonious Austrian wife, offered a
vigorous protest, and declined to have anything to do with the
unfortunate young mother and her dissolute old lover. Her feeling ran so
strongly, both with respect to the _liaison_ of Cosimo and to her
husband's intrigue with the "beautiful Venetian," that she made an
urgent appeal to her brother, the Emperor Maximilian to intervene.

It was said that the young Duchess sent a copy of her letter to Duke
Cosimo, who was furious at her conduct. He asked her by what right she
had dared to stir up ill-will at the Imperial court, and advised her to
mind her own business in the future. To the Emperor Cosimo, addressed a
dignified reply to the Imperial censure: "I do not seek for quarrels,"
he said, "but I shall not avoid them if they are put in my way by
members of my own family."

What Messer Luigi and Madonna Nannina degli Albizzi thought and said, no
one has related. They could not say much by way of complaint, for they
had foreseen, from the beginning of the Duke's intimacy with Eleanora,
that an "accident," as they euphemistically called it, was to be
expected. They had, in fact, sold their child to her seducer, and must
be content with their bargain!

Cosimo, for his part, was delighted with his dear little daughter, come
to cheer the autumn of his life. He loaded Eleanora with presents,
watched by her bedside assiduously, and told her joyfully that he meant
to marry her and so legitimatise their little child. Born at Messer
Luigi's, the baby girl was anxiously watched lest emissaries from the
Pitti Palace should try to get hold of her.

The Duke made indeed no secret of his pleasure, and moreover consulted
with his most trusted personal attendant, Sforza Almeni, how the
legitimatisation could be best effected, so as to secure for the little
lady a goodly share in the Ducal patrimony, and also a pension in
perpetuity for the mother, Eleanora.

This Sforza Almeni, when quite a youth, had been attached to the
household of Duke Alessandro. He was the son of Messer Vin