FAMOUS ROMANCES

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8360, 23 July 1920, Page 4 (Supplement)

FAMOUS ROMANCES

THE GRAND DUKE AND THE , RUNAWAY BRIDE. i (The Weekly Telegraph.) i Among the miniatures in the BritI ish Museum is one by Bronzino, I which recalls as strange a life-drama ! as any you will find in human his- ! tory. It, pictures a girl of radiant 1 loveliness —a proud, dainty little 1 head, from which the hair falls in j 1 a rippling cascade; a face in which , I the lily and the rose are exquisitely | i blended; red lips, pouting and se- | ductive; and the white gleaming ot faultlessly.moulded neck and shoulj ders. Such in the first bloom of her j youthful beauty was Bianca, daughi ter of Bartolom'eo Capello, one ot 1 Venice’s most eminent senators. | Almost before Bianca wsa emanci- ! pated- from her school-books her ■ beauty was famed far beyond the ' J bounds of Venice, and her hand was ! ! sought in marriage by more than one ' great Tuscan noble. But Bianca was ! ; ever as wayward as she was lovely; s ' and before her parents had any susi picion of danger, her heart was given 1 to Pietro Bonaventuri, a handsome, 3 ! dark-eyed clerk in Salviati’s bank, * j whose eyes had first been drawn to I her beauty as she walked, in com--3 i pany with her maid, past the window if j at which he was poring over his led- ; gers. i_ How the young lovers, first met we

this first ’meeting was followed by | many a secret rendezvous, which came to a dramatic climax. Late one night Bianca returned to her home to And the door barred against her; and, fearful to betray her escapade by knocking for admittance, she flew back to her lover. Pietro took prompt advantage of her predicament by running away with her to his home in Florence, where the fugitives arrived after receiving the blessing of a village priest, encountered on their journey, on their union. BANISHED FROM VENICE. Here a terrible disillusion met Bianca; for the bank clerk who had boasted to her of his noble birth, was in fact the son of an artisan, whose poor home did not boast of a maid-of-all-work; and the bride was I - doomed to spend her honeymoon in I helping her bucolic mother-in-law in domestic drudgery. To return to Venice, however, was impossible; for she heard that sentence of banishment had been pronounced against her, and that a large reward was offered for her husband’s capture, dead or alive. Such was the vengeance taken by Bartolomeo Capello. As for the runaways, they lived in hourly dread o) ' | the fate that hung over them. Ii 1 was well known, however, in Flor ence, where they w'ere in hiding; ant curious crowds were drawn to th< Bonaventuri hovel to catch a glimpsi of the heroe of a scandal with whicl all Italy was ringing. Thus it wa: that Francesco de Medici first se eyes on the woman who was to pla; so great a part in his life. There could be no greater contras than that between Francesco de Med ici, heir to Ihe Tuscan Grand Duke dom, and the beautiful young wife o the bank clerk, now playing the rol of maid-of-all-work and charwomar It is said, that Francesco was a mac man; and-, indeed, what we know c i him makes this description quit i plausible. He was a man of blac I tomnc- rorwhlin

alike in appearance and manner. He i was, we are told, “more of a savage ! ] than a civilised human being,’’—a * \ man of evil life, familiar with every form of vicious indulgence. His only ; redeeming feature was a. love of art which enriched the galleries of FloreilC<AN INVITATION TO COURT One day, Francesco, chancing to j ride through the' Florence slums, caught sight at an upper window of the most lovely face he had ever j seen, from which a pair of glorious black eyes looked own on him and

his gay retinue. It was but a moment’s glimpse; but from that moment Francesco knew that no peace would be his until the owner of the flashing eyes and crimson lips should be his. i To this degenerate scion of the Me- j I dicis, to wish had ever been to pos- | sess; and before another day closed ! one of the Court ladies, the Marchesa Mondragone, presented herself at the Bonaventuri cottage with an invitation to Court for the lady of the upper window. In vain did Signora Bonaventuri declare that it was “impossible,” that her daughter-in-law , had not suitable clothes for a Court. “But,” persisted the Marchesa, "that is a matter that can easily be arranged. It will be a pleasure to me to supply the necessary outfit, if the Signora and her daughter-in-law will but come to-morrow to the Mondragone Palace.” The bride, when consulted, was not unwilling, and the following day, in company with her mother-in-law, she is effusively received by the Marchesa. and is feasting her eyes on exquisite robes and I the glitter of rare gems, among which she is invited to make her choice. A moment later, Francesco enters; and, with courtly grace, is kissing the hand of bis new divinity. THE BRIDE’S PALACE. I Then followed secret meetings such as marked Bianca’s first unhappy wooing in Venice—hours of rapture for the Tuscan Duke, of flattered submission by the runaway bride; and within a few weeks we find Bianca, a secretly-wedded wife, installed in a palace of her own, with Francesco’s guards and equipages ever at its door, while his newly-made bride, Giovanna, Archduchess of Austria. 1 1 kept her lonely vigil in the apaft- • ments which seldom saw her bus-

ments wmcn suiuum saw uci i band. i Francesco indeed, had no eyes or , j thought for any but the lovely i I woman who had so sompletely enI slaved him. As for her, much can I be pleaded in extenuation of her conduct. She had been basely deceived and betrayed On the one side was a life of sordid poverty and drudgery, with a husband for whom she ■ had now nothing but dislike and contempt; on the other was the ardent homage of the future ruler of Tuscany, with its accompaniments of j splendour, luxury, and power. She was now in the very prime of her beauty, and a Queen in all but the name. Between her and the full ! queendom were but two obstacles — j her lover’s plain, unattractive, delii cate wife and her own worthless hus- • band; and of these obstacles one was ! soon removed from her path, when ! Pietro was found stabbed through the heart by a jealous husband. Now Giovanna alone remained to block the way to the pinnacle of Bianca’s ambition; and her health was so frail that the waiting might not I be long. Giovanna had provided no , successor to Tier husband (who had now succeeded to his Grand Duke-

dom) ; if Bianca could o. the Grand Duchess had j; could succeed where thj r> ess had failed, she could • sure that a son of her? day rule over Tuscany.' AMAZING IXTHIty Thus one August day | news flashed round Flor* male child had been », Palace on the Via Magg cesco was in the “s< \, nrj j delight. Here at lan \v t looked-for inheritor of the son who was ic p e l glories of the Medici, was to thwart his broth’, diual. who had so confidi ed on the succession forj , Madame Bianca . equally delighted, alihoug ure was qualified by She had played her p Bl * summate cleverness; ; two women who knew \h 5 of the birth of the ctilj] ; been smuggled into 3 a Florence slum. Qo ; changeling’s mother. ;*» - people, whom a substainj l induced to part with fc i, infant; the other wasjj ing-woman. These v.i; o imposture must be sler.j i- ly. Hired assassins tnaj v of the mother. The; [- was “left for dead” ;■ pass to which she had e but she survived longer

Grand Duke’s broiher Ferdinand de Medici. Bianca was now jj plight. At any mourej the Cardinal, might • her lover, and bring; planned edifice of her : ling about her ears. B; equal to this emerge:, i her courage in both fcs ; self confessed the fraud i Duke, who not only fo ■ completely was he und* • her beauty) but insh; the gutter-child his so: however, were soon to her; Giovanna, who I ■ paired of providing y 1 husband, gave birth j 3 later to a male child, 3 ' jubilant, for the Grand * as much beloved as h<; s tested; and the chri;i 1 | heir was made the tg a | tivities and rejoicing, 0 of triumph seemed at, r a time she left Flora " humiliation; but wiij it was back again, to ■- open arms by the Dul d Bianca had now re ith of her power and i

fore she had been baci the Grand Duchess d ! disguised relief of liel j hastened from her I | arms of her rival. fl ! now secure, unassailal ! Giovanna had been i | the family vault Biai j wedded to her Grand Florence was furk I mattered that? The late had recognisedß “Daughter of the Ri ! was the legal wife i ; Tuscany. She was Cl : last; and she meanti j Know it. That sh i j hated by her hush | that the air was fit ; ; her extravagance, h« ! | and her cruelty, gi s i merit's unhappiness. : 1 Queen, wielding thei ; : band’s hands were t

indifferent to hold, had followed bis 1 grave; and the chit who had been so t glcd into her palace, mised. P0I>! Thus passed eight dour and sovereigns ' of her reign cameio The Palace was the ! banquet given in I Grand Duke’s broth ‘ w hom Bianca still i | enemy and of win i anxious to make afi | was drawing to itsfl j sparkling eyes an looking lovelier tin looked before, was j for the Cardinal ha ed to her bright i ; words. It was 'J ment of her many life left nothing j it was, at the supn tragedy in its tno s : fell on the scene mirth. While B • her sweetest on t was seized by ti I mouth foams, hert ; agony; she shrieks , dving. Francesco ; aid, but his steps , reted. He, too, is terrible anguish. : both she and hei breath.” | “Poison” was ti , 1 through the palace ’ Florence, front blanched lip:. 9* Cardinal who fc ; others whispered : rained lari deal the Cardinal, *' . templed IVW 1 ’ Dulc. had eater, i "seeing that her ; ally miscarried, s , \ her husband's W . left of it.’’ : The Il'Uth » , ' B j What we do W . lew hours of * ’_ last dtained gl** quet, the bodies ’ Bianca were Ip* . side in an adjw , of which was 1« ’’ of the curious- ' ))liysii:iamr^ I- j