Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV FROM MILAN TO ROME Catherine, who at the time of these events vas fourteen, wept for her father and herself. Who now would ensure the happiness to which she had looked forward ? The coming of Cardinal Riario, with his splendid following, had appealed to her imagination ; this splendour had seemed to her to eclipse the magnificence of the Milanese Court and yet it was but a spark of a much more glorious flame. There was a more splendid Court than that of her father, there was a greater and more powerful sovereign than the Duke of Milan: he who held, besides the sceptre, the keys of Paradise. That Court should have been her home : she had been destined to be the most holy niece of the sovereign pontiff, at whose feet she would have seen emperors and kings kneel. She had felt that all the princesses of Italy must envy her! Now, the daggers of a handful of wretched madmen had imperilled all. But it was not so. For the death of Galeazzo inspired the Pope and Girolamo Riario with a momentary hope of obtaining possession of Milan, and in February 1477, the papal legate, Cardinal Mellini, arrived with instructions to hasten the marriage. Duchess Bona, who had always loved Catherine, most amply fulfilled her husband's promises : early in April, in her presence, that of the Cardinal and the assembled Court, Catherine's marriage was celebrated, by proxy and without any public rejoicing, on account of the recent death of the Duke. The first of Catherine's letters which exists reached Duchess Bona towards the end of that month. It ran as follows: " Most Illustrious And Most Excellent Madonna! " Be it known to Your Grace that by the grace of God, to-day I arrived at Parma well, and withal afflicted at being far from Your Grace and to be incapable of narrating and ex...