The wedding festivities were now brought to a close, and were unanimously pronounced to have passed off with brilliant success. Nothing now remained for the bride's mother but to take leave of her daughter and return home. Accordingly, on the 1st of February, Duchess Leonora set out on her homeward journey, with her son and his newly-made bride and the Marchioness Isabella, accompanied by an escort of two hundred Milanese gentlemen, with Anna's brother, Ermes Sforza, and the Count of Caiazzo—Gianfrancesco, the eldest of the Sanseverino brothers—at their head. Both Leonora and Isabella were anxious to see the Certosa, of which they had heard so much, on their way back to Pavia, and Lodovico, glad to do the honours of this famous abbey, in which he took a just pride, sent a courier with the following letter to inform the prior and brothers of the Duchess of Ferrara's visit:—
"Since, besides the other honours which we have paid to the illustrious Duchess of Ferrara, we are above all anxious to show her the most remarkable things in our domain, and since we count this our church and monastery to be among the chief of these, we write this to inform you that the said duchess will visit the Certosa on Wednesday next, on her return home. And we desire you to give her a fitting reception, and to prepare an honourable banquet for the duchess and her company, which will number about four hundred persons and horses. No excuse on your part can be allowed, since this is our will and pleasure. And above all you will see that an abundant supply of lampreys is prepared. But we are quite sure that you will do your best to pay honour to the duchess, since otherwise we should feel obliged to do a thing that would be displeasing to you, and send our chamberlain to provide for her honourable entertainment."[8]
The prior and brothers of the Certosa knew their own interest too well not to comply with this somewhat imperious missive, and left nothing undone which could gratify their illustrious guests. Isabella's curiosity for the beautiful and marvellous was amply gratified, and in Lodovico's future letters to his sister-in-law we find more than one allusion to "our church and convent of the Certosa, which you saw when you were at Pavia." After spending the following night at the Castello di Pavia, the duchess and her large party embarked on the bucentaurs that were awaiting them at the junction of the Ticino and the Po, and reached Ferrara on the 11th of February, there to begin a new series of splendid entertainments in honour of Don Alfonso's marriage with this Sforza princess.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] Porrò in A. S. L., ix. 501, etc.
[7] T. Chalcus, Residua, 90.
[8] C. Magenta, I Visconti e Sforza nel Castello di Pavia, i.