ences against the laws of Milan. Often, it must be
owned, these suppliants whom she recommended to mercy proved to be
criminals of the worst type; and quite as often the _proteges_ whom she
sent to Milan turned out to be utterly worthless characters. This made
her a little ashamed of the perpetual recommendations with which she
troubled Lodovico, and explains the apologetic tone of a note which she
addressed to him in June, 1491, on behalf of some suppliant for money.

"The letters of recommendation which I have received in this case are so
urgent that I feel it would be brutal to refuse the petition I send you,
especially since they are addressed to me by private friends. But if
your Highness complains, as you may justly do, of the frequency of my
appeals, I must ask you to impute their persistency less to me than to
my innate compassion, which induces me to intercede for all who ask in
good faith. But the truth is, your Highness has given me so many tokens
of affection that many persons who seek your favour apply to me,
trusting to my powers of intercession. And since I should be well
content to let the whole world know the love and kindness which your
Highness shows me, I grant these requests the more easily, because I
remember what good fruit my recommendations have hitherto borne."

Sometimes, when the Marquis Gianfrancesco was away from Mantua, we find
his wife consulting Lodovico on affairs of state, asking him to prevent
her neighbour Galeotto della Mirandola from constructing a canal which
may injure her subjects, or appealing to the Sanseverino brothers in the
case of a faithless servant of hers who had sought shelter under the
Count of Caiazzo's banners. Beatrice, in her turn, occasionally sent her
servants and subjects with recommendations to Mantua. For instance,
that July a Milanese soldier named Messer Giacomello arrived at the
court of the Gonzagas, with letters from the Duchess of Bari and Messer
Galeazzo di Sanseverino, asking for leave to fight a duel with a man of
Ascoli who had insulted him; and the marchioness, ignorant of the
customary method of treating these challenges, referred the case to her
husband in a long and elaborate statement.

Towards the end of September Beatrice fell ill, and for some days her
husband was seriously uneasy about her. The anxiety which he showed, and
the attentions with which he surrounded her, were duly reported by
Giacomo Trotti in a letter to Ferrara.

"Signor L