e now all-powerful Borgia. Strange it is
that the very man who, after the stormy period of her life, was to take
her to a haven of rest should appear there about the time of her
betrothal to Sforza, and while the contract was being contested by Don
Gasparo.

Among the Italian princes who at that period either sent ambassadors or
came in person to Rome to render homage to the new Pope was the
hereditary prince of Ferrara. In all Italy there was no other court so
brilliant as that of Ercole d'Este and his spouse Eleonora of Aragon, a
daughter of King Ferdinand of Naples. She, however, died about this
time; namely, October 11, 1493. One of her children, Beatrice, had been
married in December, 1490, to Ludovico il Moro, the brilliant monster
who was Regent of Milan in place of his nephew Giangaleazzo; her other
daughter, Isabella, one of the most beautiful and magnificent women of
her day, was married in 1490, when she was only sixteen years of age, to
the Marchese Francesco Gonzaga of Mantua. Alfonso was heir to the title,
and on February 12, 1491, when he was only fifteen years old, he married
Anna Sforza, a sister of the same Giangaleazzo.

In November, 1492, his father sent him to Rome to recommend his state to
the favor of the Pope, who received the youthful scion of the house of
Sforza,--into which his own daughter was to marry,--with the highest
honors. Don Alfonso lived in the Vatican, and during his visit, which
lasted for several weeks, he not only had an opportunity, but it was his
duty to call on Donna Lucretia. He was filled with amazement when he
first beheld the beautiful child with her golden hair and intelligent
blue eyes, and nothing was farther from his mind than the idea that the
Sforza's betrothed would enter the castle of the Este family at Ferrara,
as his own wife, nine years later.

The letter of thanks which the prince's father wrote to the Pope shows
how great were the honors with which the son had been received. The duke
says:

MOST HOLY FATHER AND LORD, MY HONORED MASTER: I kiss your
Holiness's feet and commend myself to you in all humility. What
honor and praise was due your Holiness I have long known, and now
the letters of the Bishop of Modena, my ambassador, and also of
others, not alone those of my dearly beloved first born, Alfonso,
but of all the members of his suite, show how much I owe you. They
tell me how your Highness included us all, me and mine