he had seen the Duchess across the frontier. So with a heavy heart the two Princesses left the land of Lorraine, where they were both so fondly beloved, and took refuge in Alsace. Belloni, who sent the Queen an account of his mistress's latest troubles in his clear Italian handwriting, was desired to tell her aunt that the Duchess had many more things of importance to say, but must wait for a more convenient season. Only one thing she must add, and this was that through all Monsieur de Vaudemont had remained perfectly true and loyal to her, although he was compelled by his office to conform outwardly to the French King's tyranny.[468] [Sidenote: AUG., 1552] BELLONI'S END] On receiving this bad news, Mary sent to beg her niece to come to Flanders without delay, promising the Duchess a home for herself and her little daughters. Unfortunately, as Christina found, this was no easy task. Not only was the whole countryside in peril of daily attacks from the French, but the Marquis Albert had descended like a whirlwind from the Suabian hills, and was spreading terror and destruction along the banks of the Rhine. The next letter which she addressed to her aunt from the imperial city of Schlettstadt, where she had sought refuge, gives vent to these alarms: "MADAME, "I received the kind and loving letter which Your Majesty was so good as to send me on the 6th of August. It came at the right moment, for I can assure you that I was sorely troubled, but Your Majesty's kindness in saying that I shall be welcome has done me so much good that I feel I do not know how to thank you enough, and am only sorry I cannot set out at once. For the roads are very dangerous, above all for children.... Your Majesty will understand how distressed I shall be until I can find some way of coming to you, and certainly one year will seem to me a hundred, until I am with Your Majesty once more."[469] This grateful letter was written from Schlettstadt on the 22nd of August, and sent to Brussels by Niccolò Belloni, the only messenger whom Christina felt that she could trust. But fresh trouble awaited her in this direction. Belloni reached Flanders safely, and came back to Lorraine with letters to the Count and Countess of Vaudemont, but disappeared in some mysterious manner two days after he reached Nancy. It seems doubtful whether he died of the plague, as Massimo del Pero wrote to his friend Innocenzo Gadio, or whether he fell into some ambush and was slain by the enemy's hand. The loss was a great one to the Duchess, whom he had served so faithfully and well for the past sixteen years, and the honest Milanese was lamented by all his colleagues. Innocenzo Gadio, sent the sad news to the Princess of Macedonia's daughter, Dejanira, the wife of Count Gaspare Trivulzio, who had formerly received Christina in his castle at Codogno. The Countess expressed her sympathy with her dearest Messer Innocenzo in the warmest terms.