Light on Lucrezia - By Plaidy, Jean Page 0,97

styles in dresses and jewels, through the long afternoons, while Lucia burned sweet-scented incense in the braziers.

Lucrezia did not know that little Lucia was bribed with bonbons by El Prete, and that she gave detailed descriptions of what happened in the apartments to him, which he in turn passed on to his mistress Isabella.

“It is pagan, quite pagan!” stormed Isabella from Mantua; and she declared that she would write to her father about the extraordinary behavior of his new daughter-in-law.

Ercole read those letters from Isabella, and it hurt him so much to think of money being wasted so lavishly that he felt he must curb Lucrezia’s extravagance. It was no use speaking to Alfonso who declared that his duties began and ended in the bed, and defied any to suggest he did not perform those with zeal.

Ercole had to act. He would not allow Spanish customs to be brought to Ferrara. He therefore forbade the wearing of zaraguelles, and there was now a law that the police might arrest any woman wearing these. But how, since these garments could be completely hidden by a gown, were the police to know they were worn? It would be possible, it was pointed out to Ercole, for women to defy the law under the very eyes of the police.

Ercole was in a difficulty. The law had been made and must be carried out, but he was not the man to give his police a chance of behaving lewdly. He could not allow them to arrest women suspected of wearing these strange garments and submit them to a search. Then how could it be ascertained whether or not a woman was wearing zaraguelles?

Ercole then declared that the police might discover by examination whether women were wearing the forbidden garments; but if they put an innocent woman to the test, if they were to submit her to the search only to discover she was without the offending garment, then the hand which had made the search was to be cut off. It was the only curb Ercole could put on possible immorality—which would offend him even as much as the introduction of Spanish customs to his court.

In the little rooms there was laughter. Lucrezia and her ladies continued to wear their zaraguelles of softest silk delicately embroidered; for what man was going to risk the loss of his hand to discover what was worn beneath a woman’s gown?

The law against zaraguelles had been made to placate Isabella. But there was something else on Ercole’s mind.

He made his way to the little apartments one day.

There was an immediate scuffle when he was known to be approaching, for fine materials had to be put away, aromatic baths concealed.

Lucrezia received him graciously, but inwardly she smiled to notice his dismay at the lavish decoration of her apartments.

“Welcome, my lord Duke,” she said, and gave him her scented hand to kiss.

Musk! thought the Duke. The price of musk today is high and of what use is scent? What purpose does it serve?

“I pray you sit beside me,” said Lucrezia. “I would make you comfortable. Will you drink some wine?” She clapped her hands.

“I am in no need of wine,” said the old Duke, “being fully refreshed. My dear daughter, you are more than comfortable here.”

“I have made these rooms very like those I occupied in Santa Maria in Portico.”

“They must have been very richly decorated.”

“They were comfortable enough.”

“You live extravagantly here, daughter, and it is for this reason that you and I must have a talk. We do not like debts in Ferrara.”

“Debts! But I have my money … my own money. I ask nothing of Ferrara!”

“But surely you cannot afford to live as you are living on 8,000 ducats a year.”

“8,000 ducats a year! But certainly I could not live on 8,000 ducats a year.”

“It is a goodly sum, and it is what I have decided shall be your income.”

“My lord Duke, you joke.”

“I am in great earnest.”

“I could not live on 8,000 ducats a year. I must have at least 12,000, and I should not consider that princely.”

“You have been brought up very extravagantly, I fear,” said the Duke sternly.

“Moreover,” said Lucrezia with spirit, “my father has paid you a handsome dowry. This was to enable you to give me an income which would compare with that to which I have been accustomed.”

“Ferrara is not Rome, my daughter. I am not a rich man as your father is. In Ferrara we consider 8,000 ducats a goodly income.