which followed, if this report were true. But Isabella could only reply
that if her husband were at Pavia, she was unaware of the fact, and it
was not until the last day of the tournament at Milan that the marquis
appeared in public.

"The nuptial benediction was pronounced, and the act of espousals
confirmed by the ring which Signor Lodovico placed on the bride's
finger, and that night the marriage was consummated," were the words of
the official proclamation that was made in Milan the next day, and duly
notified to the magistrates of the different cities in the duchy as well
as to the duke's ambassadors at foreign courts.

On the following morning Lodovico left for Milan, to complete the
arrangements for the bride's reception early in the following week.
Nothing, he was determined, should be left undone to do honour to his
nuptials or to make the occasion memorable both in the eyes of the
people of Milan and throughout Italy. During the summer and autumn
preparations had been actively going on, and a whole army of painters,
goldsmiths, and embroiderers were at work, decorating the suite of rooms
in the Rocca, or inner citadel of the Castello of the Porta Giovia,
adjoining the Corte Ducale, where the Moro and his bride were to take up
their abode. "Here all hands are busy," wrote the Ferrarese envoy to his
master, "and Lodovico takes care that for the duchess nothing is done by
halves." When the date of the wedding had been finally determined, every
nerve was strained to complete the works within the Castello, and an
imperative summons was issued by Messer Ambrogio Ferrari, the chief
ducal commissioner, to the governors of Cremona, Piacenza, and Pavia,
commanding the immediate return of the painters who were absent in these
cities. Among the masters especially mentioned in these letters, we find
the names of Bernardino da Rossi, Zenale and Buttinone di Treviglio,
Treso di Monza, and Magistro Leonardo. This was none other than the
great Florentine, then absent at Pavia, who was required to give his
advice, if not to assist, in the actual decoration of the _Sala della
palla_ on the first floor of the Castello. The vaulted roof of this
spacious hall, which was to serve as ball-room on this occasion, was
painted in azure and gold to imitate the starry sky, while the walls
were hung with canvases representing the heroic deeds of the great
Condottiere, Francesco Sforza, whose glorious memory his son Lodovico
was always eag