One condition of the marriage-contract was most unusual—­namely, that the bridegroom should be free to leave Florence upon the third day after the nuptials had been celebrated!  This was necessary, the Prince averred, in order that he might keep an appointment he had made, with his father’s consent, with the King of France—­the enemy of the quadruple alliance!

Prince Alfonso troubled himself very little about his fiancee.  He was devoted to selfish pleasures, and, when his energies were called into play, they were devoted to the service of arms.  His betrothal to Maria de’ Medici, without his consent, her untimely and suspicious death, and the character Duke Cosimo bore for tyranny, ambition, and greed, were undoubtedly deterrent to the young man’s wish to cultivate another Medici alliance.

His own father, Duke Ercole, resembled his prospective father-in-law in many respects.  The Estensi, with the Malatesti of Rimini and Pesaro, the Sforzai of Milan, and the Medici of Florence, were classed as “families of tyrants.”  Duke Ercole was a man of strong will and forceful action—­a tyrant in his own family and cruel to his unhappy consort—­he could not brook any disobedience to his behests.  He commanded his son to set forth at once from Ferrara and claim his bride in Florence.

Accompanied by a glittering retinue, which included a dozen Lords of the Supreme Council, Prince Alfonso took his way over the Apennines, along the Bologna road.  On 18th June the cavalcade was discerned from the heights of Olivets, wending its way through Boccaccio’s country to the city walls.

He was received with great distinction by the Duke and Duchess, attended by the whole Court; and his welcome by the citizens was very cordial.  Florentines always loved a spectacle.  Everyone, however, remarked the Prince’s haughty bearing, and the coldness with which he returned Cosimo’s greeting.  He bore himself as a man in presence of a foe whose every action must be watched intently.  The Duchess, with all her Spanish sensibility, perceived at once the disfavour of their guest, and sought to interest him in the scene around him and in the happiness in prospect.

Alfonso was quite unmoved.  He met Lucrezia’s greeting with a cold handshake, and begged that the marriage ceremonies might be hurried forward, as “he had not much time to spare.”  Cosimo joined in the Duchess’ entreaties that the uncanny condition, in the marriage-contract, might be observed in the breach.

“My word is pledged to the King of France,” he replied disdainfully, “and go I must.”

Duke Ercole, in a letter delivered to Cosimo by Alfonso, urged the former not in any way to dissuade his son from carrying out his intention.  It was common knowledge, however, in Ferrara, and reported by members of the Prince’s retinue to the courtiers of Florence, that Henry II. of France had made known to Duke Ercole his intention of repaying the three hundred thousand gold ducats he owed Ferrara.  A condition accompanied the proposal, namely, that the Duke should withdraw from the alliance, and despatch his son at once to Paris, to assure the bona fides of the new arrangement.