who had been his proxy
when he married Lucretia in Rome, entered into the conspiracy. The plan
was, first to despatch the cardinal with poison; and, as this act would
be punished if the duke were allowed to live, he was to be destroyed at
a masked ball, and Don Ferrante was to be placed on the throne.

The cardinal, who was well served by his spies in Ferrara, received news
of what was going on and immediately informed his brother Alfonso. This
was in July, 1506. The conspirators sought safety in flight, but only
Giulio and the minstrel Guasconi succeeded in escaping, the former to
Mantua and the latter to Rome. Count Boschetti was captured in the
vicinity of Ferrara. Don Ferrante apparently made no effort to escape.
When he was brought before the duke he threw himself at his feet and
begged for mercy; but Alfonso in his wrath lost control of himself, and
not only cast him from him but struck out one of his eyes with a staff
which he had in his hand. He had him confined in the tower of the
castle, whither Don Giulio, whom the Marchese of Mantua had delivered
after a short resistance, was soon brought. The trial for treason was
quickly ended, and sentence of death passed upon the guilty. First
Boschetti and two of his companions were beheaded in front of the
Palazzo della Ragione. This scene is faithfully described in a
contemporaneous Ferrarese manuscript on criminology now preserved in the
library of the university.

The two princes were to be executed in the court of the castle, August
12th. The scaffold was erected, the tribunes were filled, the duke took
his place, and the unfortunate wretches were led to the block. Alfonso
made a signal--he was about to show mercy to his brothers. They lost
consciousness and were carried back to prison. Their punishment had been
commuted to life imprisonment. They spent years in captivity, surviving
Alfonso himself. Apparently it caused him no contrition to know that his
miserable brothers were confined in the castle where he dwelt and held
his festivities. Such were the Este whom Ariosto in his poem lauded to
the skies. Not until February 22, 1540, did death release Don Ferrante,
then in the sixty-third year of his age. Don Giulio was granted his
freedom in 1559, and died March 24, 1561, aged eighty-three.

FOOTNOTES:

[198] Another list of the year 1516 contains a number of magnificently
bound breviaries and books of offices, but there are no additional works
of a secular n