Bianca Cappello, tlie daughter of a Venetian
noble, whom Pietro Bonaventura, of Florence,
a banker's clerk, first led astray and induced
to fly with him to Florence—he under the
belief that the fair Bianca had an inalienable
fortune, she that he was one of the Salviati,
a noble, and no plebeian as he afterwards
proved to be. When Bianca was in hiding
in Florence, under the ban of the Republic,
and disowned by her angry father and his
outraged peers, Francesco di Medici, Duke
Cosmo's eldest son, and the heir-apparent to
the throne of Tuscany, found means to see
her; and very speedily consoled her for the
mistake of her marriage, in the way most
likely to banish all regard for that marriage
from her heart and conscience. She was not
long in deliberating on the offer made her;
for it did not take even hours before she
accepted the gloomy, fitful, violent, and half-
mad savage for her lover; both soon after
binding themselves by a vow made before a
"sacred image," that they would, when and
if ever they could, consolidate their present
slippery and unsafe union by marriage. But
for the present that was impossible; for
Francesco was married to Joan of Austria;
and we have seen Bianca's incumbrance in
the shape of the young banker's clerk.
However, she, on her side, soon became
free. Pietro, having affixed himself as the
notorious admirer of a certain notorious
noble widow, Cassandra Ricci, was stabbed
in the streets of Florence; while masked
men entered the chamber of the too free and
frail Cassandra, and strangled her in her bed.
Thus the honour of the great Ricci family
was satisfied, and Bianca a little more
unfettered. Indeed, everyone knew that both
Francesco and Bianca had had their hands
in the matter, and that Pietro had not died
only to avenge the honour of the Ricci, but
also to deliver the prince and his mistress
from the burden of his existence. Francesco,
chiefly out of hatred to his brothers, who he
knew would be his heirs, ardently desired a
son. His wife, poor, proud, unlovely Joan of
Austria, had only daughters, and his beautiful
Bianca was childless.

This was an unfathomable grief to both
prince and mistress; and Bianca went to all
the cunning men, alchemists, magicians, and
astrologers, in Europe, to try to remove
this curse from her. To no good. Nature
obstinately denied her the blessing of another
child, and her despair knew no bounds.
At last she bethought herself of long
months of fraud, a false sick-bed, and a
supposititious child. And she carried out her
thought. Three women were bribed to
promise to give up their coming children,
should they prove to be sons: and from one
of them was bought a certain boy, henceforth
known as Don Antonio. Bianca did not
accomplish her fraud without considerable
trouble, and not a little danger: but at last
Francesco was got out of the way; a small
bundle was hurried up the back-stairs; and
when the doting doited prince returned, a
new-born boy was shown him, and his whole
being was filled with joy and gladness at the
sight. He adopted the child as his own,
lavished honours and dignities upon him,
and publicly proclaimed him as his future
heir, should not Joan present him with
one more legitimately produced. Meanwhile
Bianca became afraid of her accomplices.
Two of the women with whom she had
bargained were murdered; the third escaped by
a warning. The go-between, a Bolognese
woman, was sent back with honour and an
escort to Bologna; but at a lonely turn of
that Apennine road, when riding single file
through a thick chestnut wood, she was fired
at, but not killed. She lived long enough to
reach Bologna, and make a judicial
confession of the whole fraud; which was then
immediately sent off to Cardinal Ferdinand,
Francesco's brother, his heir—failing any
male issue—and Bianca's steady and undying
foe. The details of the plot were then
transmitted to the Grand Duke, who refused to
believe them: when Bianca, playing a bold
game for a high stake, confessed all, but
showed how all had been done for love
of him, and out of regard for his honour,
which his brothers and heirs disdained. The
Duke pardoned her; even thanked her for
her love so proved; accepted the alternative
she offered him; and henceforth became her
accomplice, maintaining the story of Antonio's
birth, which now he knew to be a lie and a
fraud, but preferring to make a base-born
beggar's child his heir, to leaving his crown
and throne to either of his brothers. At last
a true son was born; Joan of Austria its
mother; and for a moment Bianca's hateful
mission seemed at an end. But Joan's triumph
did not last long, and Bianca went back again
to her post, as loved and as necessary as ever.
Joan died soon after this: what else could
she do?—and then Francesco married Bianca
secretly, and, when openly confessed, the
Republic crowned her as a loved and honoured
daughter of Saint Mark, and forgot that it
had ever cursed and banished her.

Still the brothers were no better friends
to Bianca. Ferdinand especially was against
her. Her disreputable life shocked the
respectable churchman not a little, and her
schemes for personal aggrandisement offended
the family pride past redemption. Various
feints and false alarms of maternity were
given; and all Italy was kept upon the qui
vive to see if the Grand Duchess of Tuscany
would, or would not, give an heir to the
throne. At last, wearied with this kind of
life, Ferdinand made friends with his brother
and sister-in-law, and accepted an invitation
to spend a few days with them at Poggio-
a-Cajano. He came; was well received;
hunted with the Grand Duke, chatted with
the Duchess; when suddenly, on the
nineteenth of October, in the evening, after two