reason for the double tragedy--for he deemed it wiser just
then that the truth should not be published!

Solemn obsequies were celebrated in the Duomo of Pisa. Don Giovanni was
honoured with all the gorgeous ceremonies due to a Cardinal Archbishop,
and some say his body was left there, whilst the burial of poor Don
Garzia was completed by a simple service in San Lorenzo in Florence. The
cause of the twofold lamentable occurrence was officially ascribed to
malarial fever--the two young victims having contracted, as it was
said, the fatal malady during the progress of the Court through Tuscany.

The Duchess Eleanora did not long survive her sons. She never left her
bed in the Castle of Rosignano until she was carried for expert advice
and treatment into Pisa. Prince Francesco returned in haste, from his
tour of the Courts, and did much, by his loving sympathy, to revive his
stricken mother. Still of no real avail were all the remedies, for she
breathed her last one month after that terrible day in the forest, and
her body was borne sorrowfully into Florence, and, within the octave of
Christmas laid beside her dearly-loved Garzia.

As for Duke Cosimo, Don Francesco found him a changed man, aged by a
good ten years, silent, morose, and indifferent to all that transpired
around him.

News of the tragedy was current in the city of Trent, where the
Aecumenical Council was in session, and it made a great impression upon
the assembled prelates and assistants. Masses were offered for ten days
for the repose of the souls of Giovanni and Garzia, and devotions were
addressed to Heaven on behalf of the father who had--no one there for a
moment doubted--been the avenger of one son's blood and the spiller of
the other's.

Within two years Cosimo de' Medici--ever pursued by an accusing
conscience and diverted only from suicide by indulging in every
sensuality within his power, executed an instrument of abdication of
his sovereignty, naming Don Francesco Regent of the Duchy, and retaining
for himself no more than the title of Duke of Florence.

CHAPTER IV

LUCREZIA--ELEANORA--ISABELLA

_Three Murdered Princesses_

"Shall I go in, or shall I not?" asked Isabella de' Medici, Duchess of
Bracciano, with a catch in her voice.

Donna Lucrezia de' Frescobaldi, her first Lady of Honour, made no reply,
but grasped her mistress' arm convulsively. The two women stood pale and
trembling at the door of the Duke's bedchamber, in