n,
proved the beginning of a marked degeneracy in public morals.

For a time the Milanese were amused by the _fetes_ provided for them,
and dazzled by the sight of all this splendour; but retribution came in
time, and on the Feast of St. Stephen in the winter of 1476, Duke
Galeazzo was assassinated at the doors of the church of S. Stefano by
three courtiers whom he had wronged. The Milanese chronicler Bernardino
Corio gives a dramatic account of the scene, which he himself witnessed,
and relates how Bona, who was haunted by a presentiment of coming evil,
implored her lord not to leave the Castello that morning, and how three
ravens were seen hovering about Galeazzo's head on that very morning,
when, in his splendid suit of crimson brocade, the tall and handsome
duke entered the church doors, while the choir sang the words, "_Sic
transit gloria mundi_."

"The peace of Italy is dead!" exclaimed Pope Sixtus IV. when the news of
Galeazzo's murder reached him. And the issue proved that he was not far
wrong. In her distress, the widowed duchess, who seems to have been
fondly attached to her husband, in spite of his crimes and follies,
addressed a piteous letter to the Holy Father owning her dead lord's
guilt, and asking him if he could issue a bull absolving him from his
many and grievous sins. In her anxiety for Galeazzo's soul, she promised
to atone as far as possible for his crimes by making reparation to those
whom he had wronged, and offered to build churches and monasteries,
endow hospitals, and perform other works of mercy. The Pope does not
seem to have returned a direct answer to this touching prayer, but he
took advantage of Bona's present mood to hurry on the marriage of
Caterina Sforza, the duke's natural daughter, with his own nephew,
Girolamo Riario, which had been arranged by Galeazzo, and which took
place in the following April. Lodovico was absent at the time of
Galeazzo's assassination, and with his brother Sforza, Duke of Bari, was
spending Christmas at the court of Louis XI. at Tours. They had not been
banished, as Corio asserts, but, tired of idleness and fired with a wish
to see the world, they had gone on a journey to France, and, after
visiting Paris and Angers, were on their way home when the news of the
duke's murder reached them. But if any hope of obtaining a share in the
government had been aroused in Lodovico's heart, it was doomed to speedy
disappointment. Cecco Simonetta, the able secretary an