"I have received your dear letters, and rejoice to hear of your welfare. This has been a great comfort to me, but it will be a far greater pleasure to see you again. I look forward to your return with such impatience that a single hour seems as long as a whole year. May God keep you safe and bring you home again very soon, for I can enjoy nothing without Your Excellency. I am very well, thank God, and commend myself humbly to your good graces. Signora Francesca is also well, and commends herself to Your Highness.
"Your very humble wife,
"Christierna.
"Milan, June 7, 1535.
"The bearer of this letter has been very good to me."
Francesco's health had lately given fresh cause for anxiety. He suffered from catarrh and fever, and was frequently confined to his bed. A Pavian Envoy who had been promised an audience had to leave the Castello without seeing His Excellency, and a visit which he and the Duchess had intended to pay to Pavia in the spring was put off, to the great disappointment of the loyal citizens. Now his absence was prolonged owing to a fresh attack of illness, and the young wife wrote again at the end of the month, lamenting the delay and expressing the same impatience for his return:
"My dearest Husband,
June, 1535] DOROTHEA OF DENMARK
"I was delighted, as I always am, with your dear letter of the 20th instant, but should have been much better pleased to see you and enjoy the pleasure of your presence, as I hoped to do by this time, especially as these Signors assured me that your absence would be short. But they were, it is plain, quite wrong. However, I must be reasonable, and if your prolonged absence is necessary I will not complain. I thank you for your kind excuses and explanations, but I will not thank you for saying that I need not trouble to write to you with my own hand, because this at least is labour well spent, and I am only happy when I can talk with Your Excellency or write to you, now that I cannot enjoy your company. I commend myself infinitely to your remembrance, and trust God may long preserve you, and grant you a safe and speedy return.
"Your very humble wife,
"Christierna.
"From Milan, June. 1535."[111]
But the warm-hearted young wife's wish remained unfulfilled, and four months after these lines were written Christina was a widow.