Then return in
ten days' time to Urbino, and all shall be ready for the nuptials. But,
first of all, go you and tell Monna Valentina."
Confident of success, Gian Maria obeyed his host, and went in quest of
the lady. He gained her ante-chamber, and thence he despatched an idling
page to request of her the honour of an audience.
As the youth passed through the door that led to the room beyond, Gian
Maria caught for a moment the accents of an exquisite male voice singing
a love-song to the accompaniment of a lute.
"Una donna pi? bella assai che 'l sole..."
came the words of Petrarch, and he heard them still, though muffled, for
a moment or two after the boy had gone. Then it ceased abruptly, and a
pause followed, at the end of which the page returned. Raising the
porti?re of blue and gold, he invited Gian Maria to enter.
It was a room that spoke with eloquence of the wealth and refinement of
Montefeltro, from the gilding and ultramarine of the vaulted ceiling with
its carved frieze of delicately inlaid woodwork, to the priceless
tapestries beneath it. Above a crimson prie-dieu hung a silver crucifix,
the exquisite workmanship of the famous Anichino of Ferrara. Yonder
stood an inlaid cabinet, surmounted by a crystal mirror and some wonders
of Murano glass. There was a picture by Mantegna, some costly cameos and
delicate enamels, an abundance of books, a dulcimer which a fair-haired
page was examining with inquisitive eyes, and by a window on the right
stood a very handsome harp that Guidobaldo had bought his niece in
Venice.
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