Due to her father’s ill health, Beatrice was called away, thus presenting Il Moro with the opportunity in her absence to celebrate the unveiling of Cecilia’s portrait. Il Moro had ordered his secretary to draw up a list of trusted courtiers and nobles whose discretion could be relied upon. Instruction had been given to those courtiers and maidservants loyal to Beatrice, forbidding them to enter the Palace until her return. Amongst the invited were Cecilia’s six brothers, finely dressed and chatting merrily to bystanders.
‘Business is flourishing!’ Federico Stefano declared. ‘Much more of this and I shall have to take a wife.’
Cecilia, the centre of all this attention, had not yet arrived. In truth she was still preparing herself for la grande entrata.
la grande entrata.Several members o
