in Bari, which was not far from his hereditary duchy of Biselli.

We have a letter written by this unhappy Princess Isabella a few weeks
after the death of the youthful Rodrigo, to Perot Castellar, Governor of
Biselli:

MONSIGNOR PEROT: We write this merely to ask you to compel
those of Corato to pay us what they have to pay, from the revenue
of the illustrious Duke of Biselli, our nephew of blessed memory,
for shortly a bill will come from the illustrious Duchess of
Ferrara, and in case the money is not ready we might be caused
great inconvenience. Those of Corato may delay, and we might be
compelled to find the money at once. Therefore you must see to it
that we are not subjected to any further inconvenience, and that we
are paid immediately; for by so doing you will oblige us, and we
offer ourselves to your service.

ISABELLA OF ARAGON, Duchess of Milan, alone in
misfortune.[227]

BARI, _October 14, 1592_.

Rodrigo's[228] mother laid claim to the property he left, which, as is
shown by certain documents, she recovered from Isabella d'Aragona as
guardian of the deceased, to the amount of several thousand ducats. To
do this she was forced to engage in a long suit, and as late as March,
1518, she sent her agent, Giacomo Naselli, to Rome and Naples regarding
it. His report to Cardinal Ippolito is still in existence.

Whatever were the circumstances which had compelled Lucretia to send her
son away, on whom, as we have shown, she always lavished her maternal
care, the unfortunate child's experience will always be a blot on her
memory.

FOOTNOTES:

[216] Campori; Una Vittima della Storia; Antonio Capelli, Lettere di L.
Ariosto, Introduction, p. lxi. Also W. Gilbert, Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess
of Ferrara, ii, 240.

[217] Despatch of Girolamo Cassola, Augsburg, February 27, 1510.
Archives of Modena.

[218] This he announced to the Marchese Gonzaga from Pesaro, November 4,
1505. Archives of Mantua.

[219] Copies of the following instruments concerning the last Sforza of
Pesaro are in the archives of Florence: will of Giovanni Sforza, July
24, 1510; agreement between Galeazzo and the Papal Legate, October 30,
1512; Galeazzo's will, March 23, 1515; Isabella's marriage contract,
Pesaro, September 29, 1520. The epitaph in the Lateran is as follows:
Isabellas Sfortiae Joannis Pisaurensium P. Feminae Sui Temporis Prudentia
Ac Pietate Insigni Exec. Test. P. Vix.