louds gathering about Ferrara, for it was in that year
that her husband and the cardinal attacked the Venetian fleet on the Po.
August 25th of this same year Lucretia bore a second son, Ippolito.

The war which convulsed the entire peninsula immediately drew Ferrara
into the great movement which did not subside until Charles V imposed a
new order of things on the affairs of Italy. Lucretia's subsequent life,
therefore, was largely influenced by politics. Her first peaceful years
in Ferrara, like her youth, were past. She now devoted herself to the
education of her children, the princes of Este, and to affairs of state
whenever her husband entrusted them to her. She was a capable woman; her
father was not mistaken in his opinion of her intellect. She made
herself felt as regent in Ferrara. She was regent for the first time
in May, 1506, and she acquitted herself most creditably. The Jews in
Ferrara were being oppressed, and Lucretia had a law passed to protect
them, and all who transgressed it were severely punished. In the
dedication of the poems of the Strozzi addressed to her by Aldo, he
lauds, among her other good qualities, not only her fear of God, her
benevolence to the poor, and her kindness toward her relatives, but also
her ability as a ruler, saying that she made an excellent regent, whose
sound opinions and perspicacity were greatly admired by the burghers.
Even if we make allowances for the flattery, there is still much truth
in what he says.

[Illustration: ALDO MANUZIO.

From an engraving by Angustin de St. Aubin.]

Owing to these facts it is not strange that Lucretia's personality was
quite obliterated or eclipsed by the political history of Ferrara during
this period. The chroniclers of the city make no mention of her except
on the occasion of the birth of her children, and Paul Jovius speaks of
her only two or three times in his biography of Alfonso, although in
each case with the greatest respect. The personal interest which the
early career of this woman had excited died out with the change in her
life. Even her letters to Alfonso and those to her friend Isabella
Gonzaga contain little of importance to her biographers. No one now
questioned her virtues; even the Emperor Maximilian, who had endeavored
to prevent her marriage with Alfonso, acknowledged them. One day in
February, 1510, in Augsburg, while in conversation with the Ferrarese
ambassador, Girolamo Cassola--having discussed the ladies and t