e and satisfaction."[16]

The passage is eminently characteristic both of the Moro and his wife.
We see on the one hand the spirit and resolution which made Beatrice, in
the words of the Emperor Maximilian, not merely a sweet and loving wife
to her lord, but a partner who shared actively in all his schemes and
lightened every burden; and on the other, we understand the admiration
which this force of character and tenacity of purpose excited in
Lodovico's weaker and more easily swayed nature. Beatrice's masquerade
recalls another curious feature of the day--that taste for Turkish
costumes and interest in Oriental habits which had sprung up in Italy
during the forty years which had elapsed since the fall of
Constantinople. In Venice, Gentile Bellini and Carpaccio were already
showing signs of this familiarity with Eastern habits by the Turkish
costumes and personages who figure in their pictures; and a troop of
Turks were introduced into a masque written by the Milanese poet,
Gaspare Visconti, and acted before the Court. These strangers from the
far East, attracted by the fame of the great city of Milan, were
supposed to arrive in a boat on the Lombard shores, singing the
following chorus:--

"Bel paese e Lombardia
Degno assai, ricca e galante.
Ma di gioie la Soria
E di fructi e piu abbondante
Tanta fama e per il mondo
Del gran vostro alto Milano,
Che solcando il mar profondo;
Siam venuti da lontano,
Gran paese soriano,
Per veder se cosi sia,
Bel paese di Lombardia."

Still greater interest attaches to Lodovico's description of his own
visit to the Certosa and of the alterations which he effected in the
choir. This famous church and monastery had been the pride of successive
Dukes of Milan, since the day when Galeazzo Visconti laid the first
stone in his park of Pavia a hundred years before. Viscontis and Sforzas
had alike helped to enrich their ancestor's mighty foundation, and to
carry on the work. But the Certosa owes more to Lodovico Sforza than to
any other member of the dynasty. From the day when he returned to Milan
and took up the reins of government in his nephew's name, to the last
sad moments when his state was crumbling to pieces, this great shrine
was the special object of his solicitude. In his eyes, as he said in the
letter informing the Prior and brothers of Duchess Leonora's visit, the
Certosa was the jewel of the crown, the noblest monument in