Christina, now left alone at Milan, wrote a long letter to the Cardinal, whom she addressed in the language of a caressing child, saying that he was dear to her as a father, and seeking his help for two objects which lay very near her heart.
"The true affection," she writes, "which Your Excellency has shown me, and the kind remembrance of me which you always keep, makes me anxious for your health and welfare. So I beg you to tell me how you have prospered on your journey, and if you are well in health."
She then begs her friend the Cardinal to use his influence with the Emperor on behalf of her sister Dorothea, "the person now nearest and dearest to her on earth," who is in need of her powerful uncle's help. Probably the Palatine was, as usual, endeavouring to recover arrears of the pension due to him by the Emperor, and to obtain compensation for the costs which he had incurred in the disastrous expedition against Copenhagen. Hubert had lately been sent to Charles with this object, and had at the same time suggested that, if the Emperor needed a Viceroy for Milan, no one could be more suitable than his lord. But whatever the precise object of Dorothea's request may have been, Christina's intercession, it is to be feared, availed her little.
The Duchess's other petition was more easily granted.
"As a whole year," she wrote, "will soon have elapsed since the death of my dearest husband, of blessed memory, I beg you to entreat His Majesty, in my name, to be pleased to give orders that this anniversary may be observed in a due and fitting manner. And I am quite certain that he will not refuse to hear this my prayer."[138]
It would indeed have been impossible for the Emperor to refuse so reasonable a request, and the anniversary of the late Duke's death was observed with due ceremonial in all the churches of Milan. But the days of the young Duchess's abode in this city were fast drawing to a close. Before Charles left Italy he had determined to place a strong Spanish garrison in the Castello, to defend Milan against the risk of a French invasion, and had only delayed to take this step from fear of exciting discontent in the city. Stampa had hitherto succeeded in warding off the blow, but now he was forced to bow to the imperial command, and surrender the Castello to a foreign captain.
Charles, it must be owned, did his best to soften the blow. He made the Count a present of the rich fief of Soncino in the province of Cremona, and sent him as a parting gift the costly plate which had belonged to the late Duke, with a cordial invitation to follow him to Spain. But we see, from a letter which Stampa's friend Aretino sent him, how sorely this vexed his noble heart.
Dec., 1536] ARETINO'S COMFORT
"I will not grieve, my illustrious friend," wrote the time-serving Venetian, "if you have to give up the Castello, which you held for love of His Excellency, of happy memory, because to my mind it was a prison for your genius. Dry your tears, and console yourself with the reflection that now at least you are a free man. His Majesty is relieved from the jealousy of his Spanish servants, and you are saved from further anxieties on this subject. Now you can, if you choose, follow him to Spain, and lay down your office with honour unstained, and then return to Milan to live in freedom and contentment."[139]