ts were held at Pavia, at
which Messer Galeazzo, as Sanseverino is always styled in Milanese
annals, appeared with twenty followers in golden armour, mounted on
chargers with gold trappings and harness, and, having unhorsed no less
than nineteen of his opponents, bore off the first prize, a length of
costly silver brocade. The duke and duchess were present with their
whole court, but the Ferrarese ambassador remarked that the crowd all
shouted, "Moro! Moro!" and that Signor Lodovico was by far the most
popular personage with the citizens of Pavia.

"He is a great man, and intends to be what he is in fact
already--everything!" he wrote in his despatches to Ferrara. "And yet
who knows? In a short time he may be nobody."

Gian Galeazzo, however, showed no signs of interfering with his uncle in
the management of public affairs. On the contrary, he gave full rein to
his pleasure-loving tastes, seldom came to Milan, and spent his days at
Pavia or Vigevano in the company of his young wife and a few favourites.
Duchess Isabella, as time showed, was a woman of strong character and
deep feeling, but she never seemed to have acquired any influence over
her feeble husband, and found herself powerless to arouse him to any
sense of his position, "_La dicte fille_" says Commines, "_etoit fort
courageuse et eut volontier donne credit a son mary, si elle eut pu,
mais il n'etoit guere saige et revelait ce qu'elle lui disait_."
Lodovico treated both his nephew and niece with the utmost respect, and
discussed the situation freely with the Florentine ambassador
Pandolfini, saying that King Ferrante's envoy had lately gone so far as
to suggest that, since this young man could never rule for himself, his
uncle might as well assume the title, as well as the cares, of the head
of the state. But this, Lodovico declared, was a crime of which he would
never be guilty. "If I were to attempt such a thing," he exclaimed, "I
should be infamous in the eyes of the whole world!"

For the present the sense of power, the knowledge that he was the actual
ruler, sufficed him, and, as the King of Naples himself recognized, no
one could have governed Milan more wisely or well than Lodovico did in
his nephew's name. The birth of Duchess Isabella's son, in December,
1490, may have been a blow to his hopes. But the happy event was
celebrated with due rejoicings, the costly presents from the city of
Milan and court officials were displayed in the Castello, and t