ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 
Duke needed his counsel in affairs of State and beg¬ 
ging him to come to his side, in order that they might 
share their burden together and console each other. 
But Galeazzo replied that the blow was too heavy and 
his distress was too great for him to see anyone, and 
after a brief interview they left him alone. By degrees, 
however, the violence of his grief diminished, and he 
was induced to take food and see his friends. A week 
later, Bernardino de Corte was able to inform the Duke 
that Messer Galeaz had been persuaded by his physician 
and servants to leave Milan and go to Abbiategrasso 
for a few days’ change of air. 
In justice to Lodovico, it must be said that in his 
own sorrow he did not forget poor Bianca’s mother. 
The letter which he addressed on this occasion to 
his former mistress, Bernardina de’ Corradis, is a 
curious example of the good feeling and thought¬ 
fulness that often surprise us in this singular man. 
“Although,” he wrote, “we cannot speak of the 
sudden death of our darling child, Bianca, without 
the bitterest anguish, yet since you are her mother, 
we feel that it would be a grave failure of duty on 
our part if we did not inform you of this sad event 
with our own hand, this being unlike any other loss 
that has befallen us. Yesterday morning, at nine 
o’clock, having been apparently in perfect health up 
to this hour, she fell into a sudden fainting-fit, and 
in spite of all that the doctors could do for her, 
192 
