BIANCA SFORZA 
vico availed himself of the excuse to take his leave 
shortly and return to Milan with his wife. Everyone 
noticed the change in the young Duchess, who seemed 
to have lost all her usual spirits and remained plunged 
in silent grief. She visited Santa Maria delle Grazie 
daily, and spent many hours in prayer before the 
altar where Bianca slept. On the 2nd of January 
she drove to the church as usual, and lingered long by 
her step-daughter’s grave, rapt in sorrowful musings, 
heedless of the entreaties of her ladies, who begged 
her to come away. The same night she breathed 
her last, after giving birth to a dead son, and the 
following evening she was laid to rest before the high 
altar, where she had lately been kneeling at Bianca’s 
tomb. 
The Duke’s grief for the wife whom in spite of 
neglect and unkindness he held dearer than life— 
“ la sua amantissima Duchessa ”—was deep and 
lasting, and his constancy amazed both friends and 
foes. On that fatal evening, when the French were 
at the gates of Milan and Lodovico was about to 
fly for his life, he spent the last hour before his 
departure in prayer by Beatrice’s grave, and turned 
back three times to take a farewell look at the church 
which held the ashes of the wife and daughter 
whom he had loved so well. 
In these dark days, Bianca’s widowed husband, 
*95 
