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 Stato Modena. Carteggio degli Ambasciatori, Busta 
7. La Corte di Lodovico il Mono, F. Malaga2si- Valeri, 604. 
182 
