ht, had not been well prepared--but they considered that all ill
effects would disappear as suddenly as they had arisen. The report of
Francesco's illness reached the Vatican, and the Pope addressed a kindly
letter to the Grand Duchess, conveying a good-natured homily to the
Grand Duke upon the evils of gluttony!

Bianca cast aside her sparkling coryphean tinsel, and, putting on a
quiet gown and natty little cap, appointed herself nurse-in-chief to her
dear husband, and no one was better fitted for the post. Torquato Tasso,
her Poet-Laureate, noted her tender, compassionate character and her
sweet sympathy with human infirmities. In 1578 he had put forth the
first of his _Cinquanta Madrigali_, with a pathetic dedication to the
Grand Duchess.

"Had your Highness," he wrote, "not experienced yourself both good and
evil fortune, you could not so perfectly understand, as you do, the
misfortunes of others." He goes on, in his _Rime_, to extol his
patroness:

"Lady Bianca, a kindly refuge
Holds and cheers one in sad and weary pain."

Matters assumed, however, a very different aspect on the morning of the
tenth, for the Grand Duchess was seized with symptoms exactly similar to
those of the Grand Duke, whose condition by no means warranted the
confidence of the physicians. Alarm spread through the villa and the
guests departed in the greatest anxiety. The Cardinal alone remained,
and his lack of solicitude and general indifference gave the members of
the suite occasion for remark and suspicion.

He assumed the air of the master of the place, and gave orders as he
deemed well. Into the household he introduced some servants of his own,
and ordered out his Florentine bodyguard. Urgent messages passed to and
fro between him and his brother Piero de' Medici, and communications
were opened with Domina Cammilla, the Cardinal's stepmother in the
convent of Saint Monica. These did not allay the universal distrust.

Bianca's own physician failed to diagnose her indisposition, whilst the
Court physicians scouted the idea--already being translated into
words--that the sudden attacks of the Grand Ducal couple were due to
_poison_. What else could it be? The symptoms pointed that way and no
other!

On the third day tertiary fever intervened, with incessant thirst and
fits of delirium, and Francesco's condition caused the gravest anxiety.
Bianca was inconsolable. Unable to wait upon him, and suffering exactly
as was he, she penned, p