r rooms, and her
household into mourning. In her anxiety to appear elegant, even in her
grief, we find her asking Beatrice to send her some of the white lawn
veils that were made in Milan, since she could find none to her taste in
Mantua. And at the same time, she begged one of her friends at the
Milanese court to give her minute details as to the colour and material
of the mourning worn by the duchess. On the 25th of October, her
correspondent replied--

"Although I have not yet been able to see the Duchess of Bari, since she
still remains entirely in her room, yet, in order to satisfy your
Highness, I have made inquiries as to the kind of mourning that she
wears. Her Excellency is clad in a robe of black cloth, with sleeves of
the same, and a very long mantle, also of black cloth, and wears on her
head a black silk cap with muslin folds, which are neither grey nor
yellow, but pure white. She hardly ever leaves her room, and Signor
Lodovico spends most of his time with her, and they two and Messer
Galeaz have their meals alone in their rooms."[45]

A fortnight later, Beatrice roused herself from her grief to help her
husband in the preparations for his niece Bianca Sforza's wedding to the
Emperor Maximilian. The death of the old Emperor Frederic III., who
breathed his last at Linz on the 19th of August, and the elevation of
his son to the imperial throne, had hastened the development of
Lodovico's plans. The King of the Romans, as he was still called, until
he could be solemnly invested with the imperial insignia, now proposed
to send ambassadors to Milan, before the end of the year, to solemnize
his espousals with the Princess Bianca and bring his bride across the
Alps to Innsbruck. The date of the wedding was fixed for the last week
in November, and Lodovico prepared to celebrate the event with fitting
splendour. The widowed Duchess Bona was transported with joy at the
prospect of this exalted alliance, and forgave the Moro all his sins in
her delight at seeing her daughter become an empress. On her part,
Beatrice prepared to lay aside her mourning for the occasion, and appear
in a new and wonderful robe at her niece's wedding.

Accordingly she wrote to Isabella on the 12th of November, asking her
sister's leave to make use of a design for a new _camora_, which had
been suggested by Niccolo da Correggio.

"I cannot remember if your Highness has yet carried out the idea of that
pattern of linked tracery which Mess