Six triumphal arches, adorned with statues and paintings, lined the route. Peace with her olive-branch, Plenty with the cornucopia, Prosperity bearing a caduceus, Joy crowned with flowers, welcomed the bride in turn. Everywhere the imperial eagles were seen together with the Sforza arms, and countless mottoes with courtly allusions to the golden age that had at length dawned for distracted Milan. "Thy coming, O Christina, confirms the peace of Italy!" On the piazza of the Duomo, a pageant of the Seasons greeted her--Spring with arms full of roses, Summer laden with ripe ears of corn, Autumn bearing purple grapes, and Winter wrapt in snowy fur; while Minerva was seen closing the doors of the Temple of Janus, and Juno and Hymen, with outstretched arms, hailed Francesco, the son of the great Lodovico, and Christina, the daughter of Dacia and Austria. At the steps of the Duomo the long procession halted. Cardinal Gonzaga helped the Duchess to alight, and led her to the altar, where she knelt in silent prayer, kissed the _pax_ held up to her by the Archbishop, and received his benediction. The walls of the long nave were hung with tapestries, and the choir draped with cloth of gold and adorned with statues of the patron saints of Milan. "When you entered the doors," wrote the chronicler, "you seemed to be in Paradise." Then the Duchess mounted her horse again, and the procession passed up the Goldsmiths' Street to the Castello. Here the decorations were still more sumptuous. One imposing arch was adorned with a painting of St. John leaning on the bosom of Christ, copied from Leonardo's "Cenacolo" in the refectory of S. Maria delle Grazie. Another bore a figure of Christ with the orb and sceptre, and the words "Mercy and Truth have kissed each other." On the piazza in front of the Castello, a colossal fountain was erected, and winged children spouted wine and perfumed water. The Castello itself had been elaborately adorned. The arms of Denmark and Milan were carved in fine marble over the portals, the walls were hung with blue draperies studded with golden stars and wreathed with garlands of myrtle and ivy, and on either side of the central doorway two giant warriors leaning on clubs supported a tablet crowned with the imperial eagles, and inscribed with the words: "The wisest of Princes to-day weds the fairest of Virgins, and brings us the promise of perpetual peace."[99] [Illustration: CHRISTINA, DUCHESS OF MILAN (1534) (Oppenheimer Collection)] [Illustration: FRANCESCO SFORZA, DUKE OF MILAN (1534) (British Museum) _To face p. 92_] [Sidenote: MAY, 1534] IN THE CASTELLO]