It was two months before Brascha returned: he was determined not to return alone. The Emperor was very much occupied: he entertained the ambassador handsomely, invited him to festivities, waxed eloquent in praise of the Sforza family, and even mentioned Innsprück with much urbanity; but all this did not answer the purpose of the unlucky Brascha, whose exertions, uneasiness, and distress of mind may be imagined. At last the imperial procession began to move: for Brascha it was a moment of poignant emotion. Poor Bianca had no prudish reluctance in quitting Innsprück, where she had been so long eating her heart out, and the union took place on March 9 at Ala. And on the 10th Brascha wrote, with a sounding sigh of satisfaction: “At last, thank God, we have got to the consummation of the marriage, to the confusion of our enemies. I spent yesterday evening with the king and queen, and we were deep in conversation up to the time when, the Court having broken up, their Majesties decided to go to bed.” Brascha was resolved to make quite sure, continuing for several nights in succession to assure himself. At last he breathed freely! Ah! such missions as this were no sinecures! But when the time came for reappearing in public, life glowed with a new heat and resumed all its exquisite charm. If by some chance a young bride of princely rank had to cross Italy to rejoin her husband, she saw along her whole course nothing but demonstrations of joy, smiling faces, charming freaks of fancy; to give her pleasure these affectionate people used their one resource—invention. At Milan the poet Bellincione and Leonardo da Vinci welcomed the young wife of Giovanni Galeazzo in a sort of firmament, in which animated planets circled round her, loading her with compliments the while. Plato in his raptest moods never imagined anything sweeter or lovelier than certain tokens of homage paid by the Italians to a new sovereign lady. On returning to their domains the Duke and Duchess of Urbino found, ranged upon a hill-slope, the ladies of the city exquisitely dressed, and the children bearing olive-branches in their hands. As soon as the bridal party came in sight a screen of mounted choristers rose up before them, accompanied by nymphs in antique garb; dogs started off in pursuit of hares let loose for them; the hills resounded with the strains of a cantata specially composed; the Goddess of Mirth in person descended the slope and offered the duchess her congratulations and good wishes.