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. Moreover, Henry hinted not only at the advisability of separating the too youthful couple, and of giving the Prince military employment until his young wife attained a more mature age; but suggested that some way should be found, even at the eleventh hour, of allying Alfonso to a French princess. Nevertheless, Alfonso claimed his Florentine bride, whilst Lucrezia appears to have conceived an attachment for the warlike young Prince, who caused a courier to inform his father that the Princess "seemed to like" him. Duke Ercole replied as follows: "I am much pleased that your bride is satisfied with you. I would rather have heard your own state of mind in regard to the matter...." Letters to the Duke from the chief members of the Prince's suite assured him that the Prince really fell in love with the Princess at first sight, but there is no word of Alfonso's extant which shows that he cared in the least for the bride State policy had assigned for him. Duchess Eleanora was exceedingly provoked by the young Prince's demeanour and his insistence upon the observance of the unnatural condition. Moreover, she protested to the Duke her wish that the marriage might at least be postponed, pointing out, with a woman's intuition of trouble, that no good could come out of such an uncanny arrangement. She, of course, was Spanish, and she seems to have forgotten that French blood flowed in Alfonso's veins--his mother, Duchess Renata, or Renea, being a daughter of Louis XII. Duke Ercole added to the trouble by deeply wounding the Duchess' susceptibilities with a suggestion that the young bride should be sent to Ferrara, immediately after the nuptial ceremony, under the care of chosen proxies for his son. Haughtily she answered the Duke's representative: "A married daughter of the Medici, and of Spain, remains at her parents' palace until her husband, and no one else, takes her away."