ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 
the coming morrow, and all unconscious of the doom 
which hung over them. That doom was nearer than 
they knew. In the autumn of the following year 
Gian Galeazzo died, worn out by his excesses, leaving 
the unhappy Isabella to eat out her heart in gloom and 
loneliness, while her rival, Beatrice, reigned in her stead, 
and the title of Count of Pavia, which her own child 
had borne, was assumed by Lodovico’s son. Bianca was 
fondly attached to both of her little brothers, Maxi¬ 
milian and Francesco. Her name figures constantly in 
the daily reports of the Duke’s children that were sent 
him by the chamberlain in charge, Giacomo Seregno, 
when he was absent at Pavia or Vigevano. On the 
18th of April, 1495, Bianca herself wrote an affectionate 
letter to her father, telling him of her half-sister’s, 
Margherita, illness, and how she had been helping 
her mother to nurse the little girl. Soon afterwards 
Beatrice’s baby-boy, Francesco, fell ill in his turn, and 
Lodovico’s most trusted physicians, Niccolo da Cusano 
and Ambrogio di Rosate, were sent to attend him. But 
he soon recovered, and one of his attendants, Francesco 
dal Maino, wrote to inform the Duke that Madonna 
Bianca had been to see his Highness, who was 
“ looking as beautiful as a pearl.” She kissed and 
petted him, and amused him for a long time in her 
arms, and was present at six o’clock when he had his 
bath. The little fellow was as merry as possible, 
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