onquered."

Just after this conversation between the youthful Marchesa and the
Duchessa, the messenger arrived. The psychic science of to-day would see
in this occurrence a striking instance of telepathy. In her poetic
epistle to her husband, Vittoria also says:--

"A wife ought to follow her husband at home and abroad; if he
suffers trouble, she suffers; if he is happy, she is; if he dies,
she dies. What happens to one happens to both; equals in life, they
are equals in death. His fate is her fate."

These letters--in keeping with the times--were, on both sides, expressed
in literary rather than in personal form. Pescara, from his captivity,
wrote to her a "Dialogue on Love,"--a manuscript for which Visconti
notes that he has searched in vain.

The Marchesa di Pescara went from Ischia to Naples, after learning of
the misfortunes that had overtaken her husband, in order that she might
be able constantly to receive direct communication regarding his fate. A
few months later the Marchese returned, making the day "brilliant with
joy" to Vittoria, but after a year of happiness he was again called to
service, and the Marchesa returned to her beloved Ischia. She gave
herself to the study of the ancient classics; she wrote poems, and
"considered no time of value but so spent," says Rota. The age was one
of a general revival of learning. Royalty, the Pope, the princes and
nobility were all giving themselves with ardor to this higher culture.
Under Dante the Italian language assumed new perfection. This period was
to Vittoria one of intense stimulus, and it must have had a formative
influence on her gifts and her mental power. Having no children, she
adopted a young cousin of her husband, the Marchese del Vasto, to
educate and to be the heir of their estates. In 1515, Pescara again
returned and the entire island of Ischia was "aflame with bonfires, and
the borders of the beautiful shore bright and warm with lights," in
honor of the event. Of this event, Vittoria wrote:--

"... My beloved returns to us ... his countenance radiant with
piety to God, with deeds born of inward faith."

At a magnificent wedding festival in the d'Avalos family about this
time, it is recorded that the Marchesa di Pescara "wore a robe of
brocaded crimson velvet, with large branches of beaten gold wrought on
it, with a headdress of wrought gold and a girdle of beaten gold around
her waist."

When the coronation of Ch