ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



the same manner, and they all three rode the most 

 beautiful white horses, with trappings of green satin 

 and gold, and their ladies, about forty in number, also 

 wore green satin vests and jackets, and their hair was 

 dressed alia francese, but without any jewels. And after 

 the bouquets of May-blossom had been presented to 

 them with great triumph and rejoicing, they rode home 

 to dinner. 1 



But every day, as Isabella d'Este wrote to her 

 friends at Mantua, new festivities succeeded each other, 

 each one more splendid and triumphal than the last. 

 Beatrice and her sister were never tired of riding and 

 driving in the park of the Castello or through the 

 streets of Milan, " which had been made so beautiful 

 that one would hardly recognise the place. For this 

 indeed," she tells Giovanni Gonzaga, " is the school of 

 the master of those who know." 



No doubt, as the Ferrarese Ambassador hints, there 

 were bitter jealousies and dark secrets under all this joy 

 and splendour. The rivalry of Isabella and Beatrice be- 

 came every day more apparent, while Duke Gian Gale- 

 azzo's love of pleasure and incapacity for business made 

 him a mere figure-head, and to his wife's regret left the 

 reins of government entirely in his uncle's hands. For- 

 tunately for Bianca, her sweet nature and affectionate 



1 Archivio di State Modena. Carteggio degli Ambasciatori, Busta 

 7. La Corte di Lodovico il Moro, F. Malaguzzi- Valeri, 604. 

 182 



