until 1525, when her aunt, Madonna Clarice de'
Medici, wife of Messer Filippo negli Strozzi, was constituted her
guardian and instructress.

Right well the new _governante_ carried out the instructions of Clement,
and she only relinquished her charge when the Pope commanded the young
girl, just eleven years old, to Rome. Apartments were provided for her
and her suite in the Palazzo Medici, where Madonna Lucrezia, Lorenzo il
Magnifico's daughter, and wife of Giacomo de' Salviati, was appointed
her protectress.

Without a mother's care, and tossed about here and there, Caterina grew
up devoid of high principles, and became the toy of every passing
pleasure and indulgence. All the eligible princes of Europe were, in
turn, supposed to be her admirers, and rivals for her hand and fortune.
And truly the last legitimate descendant, as she was, of the great
Cosimo, was a prize in the matrimonial market--if not for her beauty and
her virtues, at all events for her wealth and rank. Indeed, there was a
project, seriously entertained, seeing that the elder line of the Medici
had failed to produce a male heir, of acknowledging Caterina as "_Domina
di Firenze_," with a strong council of Regency to carry on the
government in her name.

This proposal did not gain any favour outside the Papal cabinet: in
Florence it was scouted with derision. Two violent politicians, if not
more, lost their heads over the young girl's destiny--Battista Cei, for
proposing that she should be placed in the lions' den, and Bernardo
Castiglione, for demanding that she should be put upon the streets of
Florence, wearing the yellow badge of woman's shame!

In Rome Caterina conceived at once an invincible repugnance for
Alessandro--her father's son. His appearance, his manner, his language
appalled her; probably she was not long before she knew the story of his
birth. On no account would she speak to him, and, if he entered an
apartment where she happened to be, she rushed out, crying,
"_Negrello--Bastardo!_"

With Ippolito, on the contrary, she was the best of friends. She admired
the good-looking boy, his talents for music, and his skill in
gentlemanly exercises. The Venetian ambassador at the Vatican remarked,
in a letter to his Government: "We have here a little Medici princess,
Caterina, the only child of the late Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino. She and
Don Ippolito, the bastard son of Duke Giuliano, are inseparable
companions. The boy is very fond of his