"(1) Mend the roads and clean the streets through which the Lady Duchess will pass, and hang the walls with tapestries and carpets, the largest and widest that you can find. (2) Paint her arms on all the gates through which she passes. (3) Provide a baldacchino to be carried over her head. (4) See that lodgings are prepared for her at Novara, either in the Bishop's palace or in the ducal hunting-lodge, and let these be cleansed and decorated. (5) Prepare rooms in the town for the Duchess's household. (6) Let this also be done in the Castello Vecchio at Vigevano. (7) Desire that no gifts of any kind should be made to the Duchess at Novara, Vigevano, or any other place."[94]
When these instructions had been duly carried out, Bottigella, who had accompanied Stampa on his mission to the Low Countries, and was already acquainted with the chief members of the Duchess's suite, set out for Chambéry by the Duke's orders, to meet the bride on the frontiers of Savoy and escort her across the Alps.
III.
April, 1534] A WEDDING JOURNEY
Christina had now completed her twelfth year, and Mary of Hungary could no longer invent any excuse to delay her journey to Milan. The bridal party finally set out on the 11th of March, conducted by Monseigneur de Praet, the Emperor's representative, and Camillo Ghilino, the Duke's Ambassador, with an escort of 130 horse. Madame de Souvastre, one of Maximilian's illegitimate daughters, whose husband had been one of the late Regent's confidential servants, was appointed mistress of the Duchess's household, which consisted of six maids of honour, six waiting-women, four pages, and ten gentlemen. Christina herself rode in a black velvet litter, drawn by four horses and attended by six footmen, and her ladies travelled in similar fashion, followed by twenty mules and three waggons with the baggage. Mary had taken care that the bride's trousseau was worthy of a daughter of the imperial house, and the chests were filled with sumptuous robes of cloth of gold and silver, of silk, satin, and velvet, costly furs, jewels and pearls, together with furniture and plate for her table and chapel, and liveries and trappings for her servants and horses. The Duchess's own lackeys and all the gentlemen in attendance wore coats and doublets of black velvet, and the other servants, we learn from John Hackett, the English Ambassador at Brussels, were clad in suits of "medley grey," trimmed with velvet, all "very well accounted."[95] The imposing cortège travelled by slow stages through the friendly duchy of Lorraine and across the plains of the imperial county of Burgundy, taking journeys of twelve or fifteen miles a day, until, on the 12th of April, it halted at Chambéry, the frontier town of Savoy. The reigning Duke, Charles III., was the Emperor's brother-in-law and stanch ally, and the travellers were hospitably entertained in his ancestral castle on the heights. Here Bottigella was introduced into Christina's presence by his old friend Camillo Ghilino, and found her on the way to attend Mass in the castle chapel.
"The Duchess," wrote the Councillor to his lord, "received me in the most friendly manner, and asked eagerly after you, and was especially anxious to know where you were now. I told her that you were at Vigevano, but would shortly return to Milan, to prepare for her arrival. Mass was just beginning, so I had to take my leave, but hope for another opportunity of conversing with her before long, and can see how eager she is to ask a hundred questions. She is very well and lively, and does not seem any the worse for the long journey. She has grown a great deal since I saw her last September, and is as beautiful as the sun. M. de Praet hopes to reach Turin in seven days, and will start again to-morrow."[96]
April, 1534] BEATRIX OF SAVOY
The most arduous part of the journey now lay before the travellers. Leaving Chambéry, they penetrated into the heart of the Alps, through the narrow gorge of the Isère, between precipitous ravines with castles crowning the rocks on either side, until they reached the impregnable fortress of Montmélian, the ancient bulwark of Savoy, which had resisted all the assaults of the French. After spending the night here, they rode up the green pastures and pine-clad slopes of S. Jean de Maurienne, and began the ascent of the Mont Cenis, over "those troublesome and horrid ways" of which English travellers complained so bitterly, where loose stones and tumbled rocks made riding almost impossible. "These ways, indeed," wrote Coryat, "are the worst I ever travelled in my life, so much so that the roads of Savoy may be proverbially spoken of as the owls of Athens, the pears of Calabria, or the quails of Delos."[97] On the summit of the pass De Praet and his companions saw with interest the Chapel of Our Lady of the Snows, where a few years before the famous Constable of Bourbon had offered up his sword on the altar of the Virgin, as he led the imperial armies across the Alps. Then they came down into a smiling green valley, with walnut woods and rushing streams, and saw the medieval towers of Susa at their feet. Here they were met by the Emperor's Ambassador at the Court of Savoy, who came to pay his respects to the Duchess, bringing with him two elegant litters of crimson brocade, sent by Charles's sister-in-law, Beatrix of Portugal, Duchess of Savoy, for Christina's use. At Rivoli, two stages farther on, fifty Councillors from Turin, with the Bishop of Vercelli at their head, appeared on horseback to escort the Duchess to the city gates. Here Christina mounted her horse and rode up the steep ascent to the citadel, with De Praet walking at her side. The beautiful Duchess Beatrix herself awaited her guest at the castle gates, and, embracing Christina affectionately, led her by the hand up the grand staircase into the best suite of rooms in the palace. The travellers spent two days in these comfortable quarters, and enjoyed the brief interval of rest, although the Duchess, as Bottigella was careful to tell the Duke, seemed the least tired of the whole party, and was in blooming health and high spirits.
On the following Sunday Christina rode into Novara, on a brilliant spring morning, and was lodged in the Bishop's palace, and received with the greatest enthusiasm by her lord's subjects. At Vigevano, the birthplace and favourite home of Lodovico Sforza, the nobles, with Massimiliano Stampa at their head, rode out to welcome the Duke's bride, and carried a rich baldacchino over her head. Nevertheless, halfway between Novara and Vigevano, De Praet complained to the Count that neither the reception of the Duchess nor the rooms prepared for her were sufficiently honourable—"in fact, he found fault with everything." The Count expressed some surprise, since both the Emperor Maximilian and Charles V. himself had stayed at Vigevano, and the latter had greatly admired the buildings and gardens laid out by Bramante and Leonardo. But, to pacify the exacting priest, Stampa proposed that the Duchess should only take her déjeuner in the castle, and push on to his own villa of Cussago, where she was to spend some days before entering Milan. But De Praet replied that the Duchess, not being yet accustomed to this climate, felt the heat of the sun, and must on no account ride any farther till evening. So all the Count could do was to send Bottigella on to see that the Castello was adorned with wreaths of flowers and verdure, and that a good bed was prepared for the Duchess.[98]
May, 1534] CHRISTINA'S HUSBAND