ese will come the escort which is to take
her."[131]

The duke finally concluded to send the bridal escort, although the bulls
were not ready for him. As he was anxious to make the marriage of his
son with Lucretia an event of the greatest magnificence, he sent a
cavalcade of more than fifteen hundred persons for her. At their head
were Cardinal Ippolito and five other members of the ducal house; his
brothers, Don Ferrante and Don Sigismondo; also Niccolo Maria d'Este,
Bishop of Adria; Meliaduse d'Este, Bishop of Comacchio; and Don Ercole,
a nephew of the duke. In the escort were numerous prominent friends and
kinsmen or vassals of the house of Ferrara, lords of Correggio and
Mirandola; the Counts Rangone of Modena; one of the Pio of Carpi; the
Counts Bevilacqua, Roverella, Sagrato, Strozzi of Ferrara, Annibale
Bentivoglio of Bologna, and many others.

These gentlemen, magnificently clad, and with heavy gold chains about
their necks, mounted on beautiful horses, left Ferrara December 9th,
with thirteen trumpeters and eight fifes at their head; and thus this
wedding cavalcade, led by a worldly cardinal, rode noisily forth upon
their journey. In our time such an aggregation might easily be mistaken
for a troop of trick riders. Nowhere did this brave company of knights
pay their reckoning; in the domain of Ferrara they lived on the duke; in
other words, at the expense of his subjects. In the lands of other lords
they did the same, and in the territory of the Church the cities they
visited were required to provide for them.

In spite of the luxury of the Renaissance, traveling was at that time
very disagreeable; everywhere in Europe it was as difficult then as it
is now in the Orient. Great lords and ladies, who to-day flit across the
country in comfortable railway carriages, traveled in the sixteenth
century, even in the most civilized states of Europe, mounted on horses
or mules, or slowly in sedan-chairs, exposed to all the inclemencies of
wind and weather, and unpaved roads. The cavalcade was thirteen days on
the way from Ferrara to Rome--a journey which can now be made in a few
hours.

Finally, on December 22d, it reached Monterosi, a wretched castle
fifteen miles from Rome. All were in a deplorable condition, wet to the
skin by winter rains, and covered with mud; and men and horses
completely tired out. From this place the cardinal sent a messenger with
a herald to Rome to receive the Pope's commands. Answer was b