r every
day. Even the King of Naples' ambassadors went out hunting, and one of
them succeeded in wounding a wild boar. Isabella sent her husband
wonderful accounts of the thrilling adventures and splendid sport which
afforded the two sisters such unfeigned delight.

"To-day," she wrote on the 27th of August, "we went out hunting in a
beautiful valley which seemed as if it were expressly created for the
spectacle. All the stags were driven into the wooded valley of the
Ticino, and closed in on every side by the hunters, so that they were
forced to swim the river and ascend the mountains, where the ladies
watched them from under the _pergola_ and green tents set up on the
hillside. We could see every movement of the animals along the valley
and up the mountain-side, where the dogs chased them across the river;
but only two climbed the hillside and ran far out of sight, so that we
did not see them killed, but Don Alfonso and Messer Galeazzo both gave
them chase, and succeeded in wounding them. Afterwards came a doe with
its young one, which the dogs were not allowed to follow. Many wild
boars and goats were found, but only one boar was killed before our
eyes, and one wild goat, which fell to my share. Last of all came a
wolf, which made fine somersaults in the air as it ran past us, and
amused the whole company; but none of its arts availed the poor beast,
which soon followed its comrades to the slaughter. And so, with much
laughter and merriment, we returned home, to end the day at supper, and
give the body a share in the recreations of the mind."[29]

Four venison pasties were despatched to Mantua the next day as a
present to the marquis, whose absence from these expeditions his wife
never ceased to regret, and for whom, at least in these early years of
her married life, she had a genuine affection.

"All of these days," she writes on the 22nd, "I have been trying to
write to Your Highness, but have never been able to find time, as I am
always in my sister's and Signor Lodovico's company. Now I have at
length snatched a moment, and hasten to pay you a visit in mind, since I
cannot do so in person. For greater even than all the pleasures which I
am enjoying here, is the satisfaction I receive when I hear that you are
well and happy." A week later she wrote again: "It really seems an age
since I saw Your Highness, and, pleasant and delightful as it is here, I
begin to get a little tired of these scenes, but rejoice at th