Not only had Lodovico given his envoys minute instructions as to the language they were to hold in treating with the French king, but the clothes they were to wear, the presents which they bore to Charles VIII. and his queen, the very day and hour of their entry into Paris, were all regulated by his orders. His astrologer, Ambrogio di Rosate, had fixed upon the 28th of March as the most propitious moment for Caiazzo to enter Paris, and on that day, accordingly, the Milanese ambassadors, splendidly arrayed in rich brocades and cloth of gold, rode through the streets of the capital, and under the walls of the old Louvre, where the king and queen had their abode. On the following day, Charles himself received the envoys, and Galeazzo Visconti delivered a long Latin discourse prepared by Lodovico. On the 30th they were presented to the queen, and a few days afterwards they accompanied the royal party on a hunting expedition in the forest of Saint-Germain, but found the sport of a rude and fatiguing description, and complained that both men and animals were very savage in their habits. Every detail of the proceedings was faithfully reported to Lodovico by Antonio Calco, the secretary of the mission. For his benefit and that of Beatrice, he not only describes the costumes of the royal pair—the king's gorgeous mantle of Lyons velvet, lined with yellow satin, and the queen's gold brocade robe and cape of lion skin lined with crimson—but gives a minute account of Anne of Brittany's coiffure, a black velvet cap with a gold fringe hanging about a finger's length over her forehead, and a hood studded with big diamonds drawn over her head and ears. So curious were Beatrice and her ladies on these matters, that Lodovico wrote on the 8th of April from Vigevano, desiring Calco to send him a drawing of the French queen's costume, "in order that the same fashion may be adopted here in Milan." At the same time Lodovico desired Caiazzo to show especial civility to the Duke of Orleans, assuring him that the Dukes of Bari and Milan both regarded him as their own kinsman, and hoped that the love and friendship between them would be that of brothers. The ambassador was further empowered to offer the hand of Bianca Sforza, the duke's unmarried sister, to James IV., the young King of Scotland, through Stuart d'Aubigny, the Scottish nobleman whom Charles VIII. had sent as his envoy to Milan. Meanwhile, King Ferrante's emissaries were doing their best to stir up the Duke of Orleans against his Sforza rivals, and had secretly offered his granddaughter Charlotte in marriage to the youthful Scottish monarch.
But for the moment Lodovico's star was in the ascendant, and his influence reigned supreme at the French court. Charles VIII. formally ratified all the conditions of the treaty which had been signed at Milan in January, and wrote to inform Pope Innocent that he had entered into close alliance with the house of Sforza, and would regard any injury done to the Dukes of Milan and Bari as a personal wrong.
The object of the embassy being accomplished, Count Caiazzo, Galeazzo Visconti and Tuttavilla took leave of the French king and returned to Milan on the 5th of May, leaving Count Belgiojoso as permanent envoy at Paris. The triumph of Lodovico's diplomacy was complete, and without shedding a drop of blood, or making any warlike demonstration, he had outwitted all his foes and secured the alliance of his most powerful neighbour.
The good news gave fresh zest to the pleasures of Beatrice's court that summer, and to all the memorable enterprises upon which Lodovico was engaged at home.
Early in March the Duke and Duchess of Bari left Milan to take up their abode at Vigevano, and held a series of brilliant fêtes and hunting parties in this newly-finished palace. The works upon which Bramante and his companions had been employed for years past were finished, the great hall with its richly-wrought marble capitals, the noble tower and imposing porticoes, were all complete. The last stone was in its place, and on the great archway that formed the entrance to the stately pile, Lodovico placed this proud Latin inscription, bearing the date, 1492.
"LUDOVICUS MARIA SFORTIA VICECOMES PRINCIPATU JOANNI GALEACIO NEPOTI AB EXTERIS ET INTESTINIS MOTIBUS STABILITO POSTEAQUAM SQUALLENTES AGROS VIGEVANENSES IMMISSIS FLUMINIBUS FERTILES FECIT AD VOLUPTARIOS SECESSUS IN HAC ARCE VETERES PRINCIPUM EDES REFORMAVIT ET NOVIS CIRCUMEDIFICATIS SPECIOSA, ETIAM TURRI MUNIVIT POPULI QUOQUE HABITATIONIS SITU ET SQUALORE OCCUPATAS STRATIS UT EXPEDITIS PER URBEM VIIS AD CIVILEM LAUTICIAM REDEGIT DIRRUTIS ETIAM CIRCA FORUM VETERIBUS EDIFICIIS ARCAM AMPLIANT AC PORTICIBUS CIRCUMDUCTIS IN HANC SPECIEM EXORNAVIT. ANNO A SALUTE CHRISTIANA NONAGESIMOSECUNDO SUPRA MILLESIMUM ET QUADRIGENTESIMUM."
He had given back peace to his nephew's realm and had vanquished external foes and quelled internal dissensions, he had brought rivers of water to make the barren fields of Vigevano fertile, and had rebuilt the ancient Forum and raised fair porticoes and fine houses round the wide square. And now, as a crowning gift to this his native city, he had restored and beautified the ancestral castle of the illustrious house of Sforza and had reared stately halls and a fair tower to make Vigevano a home of perpetual delight.
During the continual round of amusements in which these festive weeks were spent, Beatrice had little time for writing, and the only letter we have from her hand during this visit to Vigevano is one addressed to her sister Isabella, in which she begs for information respecting Father Bernardino da Feltre, a famous revivalist preacher of the Franciscan order, who had travelled through the cities of Central Italy, preaching repentance and founding the charitable institutions known as Monte di Pietà for the relief of the poor.
"A report has reached us here," wrote the young duchess, "that the venerable Father Bernardino da Feltre, who has been preaching in Verona this Lent, was heard to declare from the pulpit that he had received a message from heaven, warning him that he would die in Holy Week, after miraculously opening the eyes of a blind man. Now I am very anxious to know if this report is true, and since at Mantua you are sufficiently near Verona to learn the truth of these tales, I beg you to make inquiries and let me know the result."
A fortnight later, Isabella, who had been absent from Mantua, was able to satisfy her sister's curiosity and at the same time answer a previous note in which Beatrice had given her a bad character of one of the Marchesana's protégés, an archer in Fracassa's service. She writes:—