PREPARATIONS.

Character of the Fieschi family—Gianluigi acquires the friendship of the silk operatives and other plebeians—The Duke of Piacenza selects the count to arbitrate his differences with the Pallavicini—Secret understandings between the count and the duke—Gianluigi puts his castles in a condition for war—Gianettino Doria, to pave the way to supreme power, gives Captain Lercaro an order to kill Fieschi—Industry of Verrina—The decisions of history on the merits of Fieschi should be made in view of the political doctrines of the sixteenth century.

In monarchical states great families usually derive their importance from the head of the nation, who overshadows them all; but in cities ruled by the people, every house has its peculiar position and character. In Genoa, families had features and qualities which had characterized them and given them a distinct history for centuries. The Adorni and Fregosi always loved authority; the Durazzi were distinguished for munificence; the Serra for legal learning; the Pinelli for indomitable energy; the Lomellini for liberality; the Doria and Spinola for military genius. The Fieschi had always maintained and guarded, though with a partisan spirit, the popular franchises.

We find in the annals of this illustrious race a NicolÒ and a Percivale, who, as imperial vicars, granted liberty to the Florentines and Luchesi. We find in the long history of their political power in Genoa that the Fieschi never struggled for supreme position as did the Adorni, Fregosi, Spinola, and Doria. Carlo Fieschi, as the chief of the Guelphs, was, in 1318, placed at the head of the government, with Gasparo Grimaldi for colleague, but he never attempted any legislative or constitutional charges for the sake of remaining in office. Bonfadio himself, though their enemy, declares that, though the Fieschi surpassed in power all other families, they never laid hands on popular rights.[39] They were in Genoa what the Capponi were in Florence.

This reputation of the counts of Lavagna rendered it easy for Gianluigi to obtain followers. To cover his true designs, he made no change in his manners or life, carried an open and jovial countenance, and studied more than ever to promote domestic tranquility. His palace was open to all; he was generous with his friends, affable and courteous to every one. He courted the rich with flattery and blandishments, the poor with gifts. His table, spread with regal profusion, was free; and he seemed to have no other cares besides races, the chase and the dance.

He cultivated friendship with the old nobles, but had greater intimacy with the new. The Dorias did not complain of the count’s relations with the new nobility; for, though his house was old and illustrious, its traditions were Guelph, and the new patricians and the leading popular families belonged to that party. In his intercourse with these persons, on whom he relied for assistance, he spoke sneeringly of the reforms of 1528, which had advanced the Portico of San Luca to the highest power, created deep-rooted antipathies, and weakened the Republic. Sometimes he showed a profound passion, and his broken and threatening tone conveyed a meaning beyond the import of his words.

Having won the favour of the rich and distinguished popular families, he cultivated the love of the plebeians. In this, his pleasant and familiar manner secured him great success. He treated them as his equals, and, the true Alcibiades of his time, he adapted himself to their personal characteristics and prejudices. Chronicles tell us that he watched from his towers to see if the chimneys of the poorer classes smoked regularly at the hour for preparing food, and sent provisions whenever this token of a meal was missed on any roof. Such wise generosity acquired him the affection of the people. The foreign wars and the stagnation of trade had impoverished a great part of the citizens, especially the spinners and the silk operatives, then called Tuscans, of whom there were fifteen thousand in Genoa.

The history of the manufacture of silk, through which so many Italian families acquired wealth and rank, has not yet been adequately treated. The history of trades and crafts in the Peninsula would be a useful work, and would show that even in the midst of the fiercest contests of faction, commerce was always held in merited honour and was regulated by few and simple restrictions;—that merchants and artisans had their art-unions or corporations with their own laws, arms and masters, that the trades were thus united in associations as a means of perfecting their products and as a security against fraud. The historian of our manufactures would tell us that in Genoa, before 1432, the trade of silk-weaving had its capitudini, or officers, consisting of two consuls and six councillors, who inspected the quality of the fabrics, provided for their sale, took charge of the profits and decided upon the complaints of the operatives. The government issued many proclamations and made numerous laws to promote the woollen trade; among which those of Doge Pietro Fregoso are remarkable. He forbade the operatives, who lived in the quarter still called Borgo del Lanieri, to leave the walls of the city, or carry elsewhere their tools and skill, under penalty of confiscation of goods and other pains. Some illustrious men were enrolled and matriculated in the art of silk, among them Doge Paolo da Novi; and Gianettino Doria himself, when his father Tomaso fell into poverty, spent his youth among the silk-weavers of our city. The silk operatives venerated the Volto Santo of San Cipriano, a circumstance which explains the extraordinary number of these images which are to be found in Genoa and along the eastern Riviera.

Not less prosperous than the silk manufactures were the corders and beaters of wool, also united into associations. They gave a great impulse to traffic and navigation. The beginnings of our civilization were born of industrial arts. The marines artisans, and tradesmen formed the only army of the Republic when it made war on feudatories and compelled them to swear allegiance to the commune. These brave plebeians—to-day operatives, to-morrow soldiers, not more masters of the shuttle and the oar than of the sword, tempestuous in character but fervent in faith—created in Genoa fruitful industries and immense social power; and though in the fury of faction they sometimes shed blood in the streets of Genoa, they atoned it by giving her, through formidable fleets, the dominion of the seas.

Guglielmo Embriaco, the hero of the first crusade, is the representative of this Genoese thrift and courage. Our armies were nothing more than associations. Such companies subdued the Euxine. The Giustiniani captured Scio, Samos, and other islands, and divided their gains pro rata per man in proportion to the expense which each had borne; the Cattaneo at Phocis, the Gattilusio at Mytilene, and the Zaccaria in Negroponte. Elis and Achaia adopted the same rule. It rarely happened that one who was not inscribed in a trade and to the commune obtained any position as a master-workman. The very nobleman who was a Ghibeline outside the walls became a Guelph when he established his residence in the city; and though from his castles in the passes of the Apennines he might have once plotted to invade us, he had no sooner recorded himself as a citizen than he counted it an honour to guide our fleets and overthrow our enemies. There was at one time a law which forbade the nobles to command even a ship; and many great nobles enrolled themselves with the people to open the path to naval and military authority.

The mark of these Guelph institutions on the people of Genoa was deep and enduring. The Genoese of our day are living proof of their lasting influence. Labour and banking produced immense wealth. The Genoese became the bankers of Europe. In the year 1200 they drew the first bill of exchange.[40] It was drawn on Palermo. They diffused the Arabic system of notation. In 1148 they created, for the conquest of Tortosa, the first public debts which they afterwards consolidated, appropriating the city and port customs to pay the interest. They founded the Bank of St. George, on whose model those of England and Holland were constructed, and they planted colonies everywhere. Along the inhospitable coasts of the Caspian and Aral, in Turchestan and Thibet, the pilgrim was safe in person and property who declared, “I am a Genoese.”

We return from this digression to the thread of our narrative. The long wars had lessened the gains of our trades-people; even the silk operatives were by the want of markets reduced to extremities. In that year, too, food was dear throughout Italy; and the merchants who held grain kept it back from sale in order to raise the price. Gianluigi, wishing to provide for the pressing wants of so many operatives, called to him Sebastiano Granara, consul of the weavers, obtained a list of the most distressed families, and sent them sums of money with a request to keep secret the name of the donor, and to inform him whenever they were again in urgent need.

He frequently requested the artisans and mechanics who were natives of his lands (they were more than two hundred) to come to him in Vialata, where he opened to them his granaries, and otherwise succoured them. By such acts of generosity he acquired the favour of the people, who were ready, as a proverb has it, “to carry water for him in their ears,” and to defend his person at their own peril.

Having by such practices obtained the sympathy of the new nobles and the humble classes who lived by their daily labour, the count began to provide the arms and soldiers which he should need, and, with great tact, availed himself in the exigency of the discords among the neighbouring governments.

Pierluigi Farnese, after having obtained from Paul III. the investiture of Parma and Piacenza, soon found that he had not sufficient forces to maintain his power in these provinces. Gerolamo Pallavicini, marquis of Cortemaggiore, and others of that family to whom the duke had prohibited the trade in salt, raised an armed rebellion. The Rossi, Sanseverino, Pusterla of Milan, and other feudatories, were supporting the insurrection. It was also encouraged by Giovanni del Verme, lord of the Romagna, a personal enemy of the duke, and by Beatrice Trivulzio, who being incensed against Paul III. for conceding the port of the Po in Piacenza to Michelangelo Bonaroti, excavated a new harbour, and deprived the divine architect of his reward.

The duke collected an army, and, as soon as he felt able to contest the field, demanded from some of his enemies the restitution of his dominions in their possession, claiming that these lands and feuds had been ceded to them by his predecessors to the prejudice of the ducal rights. The Pallavicini, who were particularly included in this demand, made such preparations as were possible to secure their own rights and repel all the duke’s attempts at aggression.

The estates of the Pallavicini and Fieschi were separated only by a little stream; and the count seeing a war cloud on the horizon, so near to his own fields, visited his feuds in the summer of 1546, under pretence of watching over his property. He spent some time at Lavagna, Montobbio, and Pontremoli. Here he collected his dependents, formed them into companies, and held musters and reviews. He would have gone farther, if the emperor, fearing that the Pallavicini dispute with Pierluigi would excite a general Italian war, and so distract his attention from his campaign against the Smacalda league in Germany, had not sent peremptory orders to Don Ferrante Gonzaga, who had succeeded to Marquis Vasto in the government of Milan, to pacify the quarrel, threatening the whole weight of the imperial displeasure against any who should refuse his mediation.

The duke was induced to lay down his arms by the shrewd Pontiff, who did not wish an open rupture with CÆsar, and Count Fieschi was chosen by Farnese as arbiter of the rival claims. These two—Farnese and Fieschi—had been on intimate terms some years before, at the time when the former came to Genoa, (1542), in company with Annibal Caro and Appollonio Filareto, his secretaries, to pay homage to the emperor and to ask a congress in the name of the Pope—the congress which took place in Busseto.

Fieschi, mindful of old ties, conducted the negociation with so much dexterity that he obtained from Pallavicini more than the duke had dared to hope. A friendly and familiar correspondence always continued between them, as several letters we have had in our hands prove. Among them there is one of the 3rd of February, 1546—now preserved among the Farnesian papers in Parma—in which the count recommends to the duke a master-workman, Giacomo Merello, “a maker of cannon of rare skill in his profession,” who had a law-suit with another master workman in Parma. In these letters the count acknowledges that he has received many favours from the duke.

In their many interviews in Piacenza, Farnese, who knew what had been said and done at Rome, spoke freely of his hatred towards CÆsar, who had openly favoured the Pallavicini, and who was a constant enemy of the advancement of the Farnese family. He avowed that he was ready to throw himself into any undertaking which should promise him revenge. The count in his turn, enlarged on the enmity between himself and the Dorias, the oppressors of his country, on the plots of Gianettino, already known to him, and finally asked the assistance and support of the duke in his contemplated insurrection. It is needless to say that the duke gave liberal promises of aid in a work which would take away the influence of the Dorias, his hereditary enemies, and doubtless add something to his personal importance and wealth.

Meantime Gianluigi, who could ill tolerate delay, enlisted in his service a large number of men, then just discharged from the ducal army, and distributed them among his most remote castles. Having returned to the city, he kept Farnese advised, by frequent messengers and letters of all his movements and successes. Some of these letters are now passing through the press. In one of these, dated the 17th of April, he complains to the duke that Gianettino had given him an order from CÆsar to send his fourth galley to cruise for pirates; he speaks of plots woven for him by the young admiral, and asks the advice of Farnese.

The Duke advised that his plans be hurried forward, and mentioned, as a special inducement, that RenÈe, of France, duchess of Ferrara, had again offered French aid through Pierluigi. But it is certain that the count made no more use of this offer than he had made of others like it.

We find in ancient chronicles a statement which would be greatly to the credit of both Farnese and Fieschi. They had, according to these writers, laid the foundations of a league common to all the Italian princes, the object of which was to remove from the Peninsula every vestige of foreign power; but historical fidelity compels us to say that we have found no document which clearly proves the fact. In July, the count went to Montobbio, drilled his vassals in military exercises, and put his castles in such a state of defence as to be able to resist a long siege. He then went through, one after another, his principal feuds. It is worth our while to touch in passing upon the condition of some of them at the time of which we write.

Passing along the Eastern Riviera from Genoa, the count would first enter into Recco. It was then a large borough with three hundred and seventy-four fires, and he had built in it a superb palace called the Astrego. He drew from this feud select mariners, to man his galleys. He visited Roccatagliata and Cariseto, castles of considerable strength. He added to their defences and supplied them with provisions. We find that he spent some time at the castle of Varzi, on the slope of Penice, formerly one of the principal fortresses of the Malaspini, near Bobbio. He remained longer still in Lavagna. This region, though not then so prosperous as it was before Frederick II., reduced it to a desert, (1245) and levelled the fourteen castles which the counts had built there, was yet a feud of considerable importance, on account of its slate quarries.

The Lavagna property included, to say truth, only a little group of a hundred and thirty-six houses, but the surrounding country was adorned with many burghs, as Centurion, San Salvatore, the earliest seat of the Fieschi family, Cogorno and Brecanecca, forming in all five hundred and seventeen fires and six churches. Besides the valley of Lavagna was full of little estates and burghs, such as Torre, Vignale, Villa Fronte, Aveglio, Cortemiglio, Rimaglio, Pregio, Bausalo and Oneto. Lavagna was the heart of the Fieschi dominion. From this point it was easy to lay hands on the Lombard provinces or to draw thence men and arms. In those days the burgh of Sestri, close by, was one of the most busy points of transit, and was the best station from which to send goods into Lombardy. Merchandise was transported from Sestri to Castiglione, and ten miles only remained to Varese, also the property of the Fieschi. It counted two hundred fires, and was prosperous with the trade of Lombardy. Then, crossing the Apennines, twelve miles of travel brought the merchant to Val di Taro, a burgh of one hundred and fifty houses, which overlooked forty-two villages, subject to Count Fieschi.

Having examined his resources and put his castles in a state of defence, constructing strong outer walls, for those which seemed to him to be weak, under pretence of “fortifying himself against the Duke of Piacenza, who was too fond of his neighbour’s property,” he passed over to Pontremoli.

Leandro Alberti, who visited this noble and luxurious castle about that period, says that it stood near the mouth of the Magra, and at the foot of the Apennines. It was fortified by three fortresses, and numbered eight hundred houses, while its jurisdiction embraced forty-eight contiguous burghs, not to mention the valleys of Volpedo, Rosano, Zeiri, and the hamlets along the banks of the Crania, which counted one thousand and eight hundred fires. Giustiniani says that the lord of Pontremoli could easily put under arms two thousand men.

Gianluigi spent some time here, having conferences with Count Galeotto Mirandola, the Pusterla and Cybo, the marquises of Valdimagra, the Bentivoglio, the Strozzi and others, who were restless under the imperial yoke; and in these negociations he was ably seconded by Catando d’Arimini and by Giulio Pojano, to whom he had assigned the command of his galleys.

The count did not return into the city until the end of autumn. Pierluigi Farnese, to remove all suspicions of the plot, wrote many letters to the Genoese government, and took great care to show his anxiety to render every service or favour in his power. The object of these letters, which may be said to contain little political wisdom, was much more grave and serious than their tone implied. The golden style of Caro, who dictated them, gives them a certain charm; but their highest value lies in showing how skilfully Pierluigi and Fieschi planned and worked to elevate their friends to office under the Doria government, to get the control of public affairs out of the hands of Andrea, and so pave the way to the success of their great insurrection.

One fact is very important. The doctors of the law and the magistrates of the Ruota always possessed large powers in the Republic, and the practical operations of the government depended almost entirely on their counsels. When Fieschi had made such military preparation as seemed sufficient for a revolution, he naturally sought to get the lawyers on his side, as the only class who could organize and maintain the new government. By the aid of the Duke of Piacenza, he contrived to place in the principal offices of the Ruota, and even in the vicarate of the city, men who shared his own political views, and were distinguished for political sagacity and administrative ability. On the 25th of May, 1486, duke Pierluigi wrote to the Doge and Governors that M. Hettore Lusiardo, a gentleman and doctor of Piacenza and a person of great learning, desired to obtain an appointment in the Ruota of the Republic. And he adds, “I am greatly pleased to see my vassals honoured according to their merits, and I cheerfully use my influence to advance them to such positions as they desire. On this occasion I hope your highnesses may lend a favourable ear to my intercession on behalf of Messer Hettore, since in employing this person you will at once gratify me and secure the services of a man worthy of your esteem, as he will show when put to the proof.”

In another letter of December 17th, he renewed the same request: “Writing on another occasion, I have asked your favour for Messer Hettore Lusiardo, one of my Piacentine gentlemen and doctors, and a person of rare personal qualities, who desires a place in the Ruota of your city. Wishing much that he may obtain his request, I repeat my recommendations in the strongest possible terms; and if you can give him such a place as he desires, you will not only serve a person worthy of your confidence and the favour he asks, but also do me a great pleasure.”

In another letter of the 24th of November, we read: “M. Bernardo Alberghetti da Rimini, at whose request I write, is a doctor in law of much learning, long practice, and strict integrity—qualities which I know him to possess, both from the reports of others and from my personal experience, having employed him for many months. He would still be in my service but that I have no employment of moment for him, and he deserves something better than a subordinate position. He wishes to enter into the Ruota of your most noble city as a means of advancement, and hopes that my recommendation may have some value with your Excellencies. I esteem him to be, as I have said, a person of most excellent qualifications, and I doubt not I shall have well served your interests in sending him to you, and I therefore the more boldly pray you for love of me to give him your approval.”

In the same year the official term of the vicar of the city expired, and the office was of such importance that the conspirators exerted themselves to fill it with a person entirely devoted to their interests. On the 13th of September, Farnese wrote: “When Count Fieschi was last in Piacenza, I warmly recommended to him Mr. Camillo Villa, a Piacentine doctor in law, and urged him to ask from your Excellencies in my name the office of vicar in your city for this person. Though I am certain that the count would not fail in doing me this service, and believe that I may rely much upon your courtesy to me, and though I have recently by letter renewed my request to the count, yet I deem it not discourteous, as the time for filling this post draws near, to recommend Mr. Camillo directly to your excellencies. Should you grant my request, you will both secure to your city an officer who will always serve you well and do me a personal kindness.”

It is hardly necessary to say that Farnese obtained from the Senate all these appointments. Secret as were these intrigues, they did not escape the acute eyes of Panza, who inferred that the count was engaged in some conspiracy. He therefore took opportunities for watching his movements and his manners; and finding that the count withdrew from his former familiarity with his old tutor, he was led by his affection to admonish him of the dangers before him. But Gianluigi broke off his reproofs with ill-concealed impatience and answered him with the words of Cato: “If I believed that the shirt I wear knew the secrets of my heart, I would tear it off and give it to the flames.” Then checking his impetuous speech, he added that he would do nothing that should not be worthy of his own fame and that of his ancestry.

Panza was not the only person to suspect the count of some conspiracy against the power of CÆsar. John Vega, ambassador of Spain at Rome, conceived doubts of his fidelity, and set Ferrante Gonzaga to watch his movements.

Gonzaga sent to Prince Andrea his secretary, Maone, with the letters of Vega and other documents which referred to a conspiracy, believed to be forming by Gianluigi.

Andrea rejected the tale as the work of some malignant slanderers, and replied that he knew Fieschi was not a man to conspire against the empire.

Though the purchase of the pontifical galleys was a sharp thorn in the side of Gianettino, who aspired to an exclusive dominion of the seas, yet it was not an act sufficiently singular to awaken the suspicions of the Dorias.

The most wealthy families were accustomed to arm galleys; and the Sauli had negociated for the purchase of these same triremes, intending to use them in their maritime enterprises.

The behaviour of Fieschi contributed still more to remove from the minds of Gianettino and the prince every shadow of suspicion. He frequently visited Andrea and congratulated him that, though more than eighty years of age, he enjoyed vigorous health; and he was so affectionate and obsequious to Gianettino that the young admiral tried to obtain for him a suitable rank in the imperial army. It should not be forgotten, however, that one motive of Gianettino was, to remove Fieschi from Genoa, as the only one likely to make an effective opposition in his personal ambition. It is certain that from the time Vega declared Gianluigi to be engaged in machinations against the empire, Gianettino conspired to remove from his path the only person who could be an obstacle to his own advancement. He only awaited Andrea’s death to put off the slight mask which he had hitherto worn; and in expectation of that event he had entrusted to Captain Lercaro the business of assassinating the count. This was proved by letters of Gianettino which fell into the hands of Fieschi, and were by him shown to many persons; though the writers in the interest of the empire asserted that these documents had been forged by Gianluigi.

About this time a messenger in the confidence of CÆsar brought word to the count that Andrea’s solicitations on behalf of his nephew were about to be successful, and that Gianettino would soon be invested with absolute power, on the same conditions as those by which Casimo II. had ten years before been raised to the government of Florence. This report, whether true or false, was circulated among the friends of the count, and doubly inflamed their resentment. They resolved, in their indignation, not to procrastinate longer the deliverance of the Republic, and to strike down with one blow the ambitious youth who was conspiring for supreme power.

The count’s first step was to recall from Civita-Vecchia the fourth galley under the command of Giacobbe Conte, on pretence of arming it as a privateer, and sending it to cruise against the Barbary commerce in the east. He had two other ships ready to sail in neighbouring ports. With these vessels he was able without exciting suspicion, to bring into the city the troops concealed in his castles. He placed some of them on board his triremes; others were concealed in his own house and those of his fellow-conspirators.

Verrina was the soul of every movement. He knew all the arts of ingratiating himself with the plebeians, and winning their sympathies to the cause of his master. He began to allude in guarded phrases to the necessity of a revolution in the interest of popular government; and at the same time contrived to have many vassals of the count enrolled in the permanent militia of the Republic. Many artisans and mechanics to whom he gave presents, promised him the service of their arms to rescue by force a castle of the count from some Florentine merchants, who, he said, had seized it for debts. He was a man capable of inventing traps and lures for all sorts of birds, and he enrolled no one, whom he believed fitted for the work of the conspiracy, until he had sounded the note best adapted to charm his recruit.

Calcagno, though he had dissuaded the count from drawing the sword, was so overcome by his love for his young master, that he was the most ardent worker in the conspiracy. He was assigned the office of providing arms and provisions for the troops gradually being collected and introduced into the city. Sacco was appointed to maintain order and discipline among these soldiers. Ottobuono, brother of Gianluigi, was sent to the court of France to secure the sympathy of the French monarch for the cause of the approaching revolution.

The Republic was at this moment without a Doge, Giovanni Battista di Fornari having retired from the magistracy. The galleys were idle and without crews, because the season was unpropitious for navigation. There were few of the permanent militia in the city, and these for the most part were devoted to Gianluigi. Giulio Cybo and other marquises of Valdimagra, had a considerable force ready to break into the city at the first opportune moment. The plebeians were ripe for revolution; the Dorias and nobility without the least suspicion. All things seemed propitious.

Such was the condition of Genoa on the eve of the conspiracy. “Strange,” says Cardinal de Retz, “ten thousand persons in Italy were awaiting the outbreak of the insurrection, and there was not one to betray the plot.”[41]

We ought not, in my judgment, to decide upon the merits of this conspiracy according to the views of our own time, in which political movements are discussed on principles of justice, but rather to give the conspirators the benefit of the opinions and politics of their own age. The doctrines of Macchiavelli, on which Gianluigi had formed his principles, aim at the immediate interests of states and derive principles from facts. The theory of Guicciardini is the same. Whoever undertakes to philosophise on the political ideas of the sixteenth century will find that State policy never professed any higher creed than utility, and that those who were ambitious of repute as statesmen were not bound by a public moral sentiment to show the justice of their methods for obtaining desirable ends. Whoever had introduced on the scenes of state craft abstract maxims of morality would have been hissed off as a fool. The creed ran thus:—“Do you wish to free your country? Caress the tyrant and then kill him. Your dagger is sharper than the eyes of his satellites. Audacity and courage are everything. He who falters for an instant is undone. Every means is just which leads to success.”

Gianluigi held these maxims and he could not lay them aside without freeing himself from the age in which he lived. It was natural, therefore, that with his noble intention of destroying the empire of the Dorias he should use every instrument which seemed adapted to his purpose. His heart was bursting with suppressed rage; but his serene look and urbane manners proclaimed him a peaceable and loyal citizen. His nerves were strung with the spirit of revenge, but his frank countenance, affable speech and good humour were those of a mild-mannered and unruffled gentleman. Once only he broke out against his rival with fierce invectives; but ever after he feigned content and put to sleep his adversary’s vigilance while meditating his blow. He knew no other paths to his end than those pointed out by the state craft of his time. Why should he awaken suspicion in the Dorias when all his interests said, “Deceive them”? It is folly to arm an enemy who is delivering himself unarmed into your power. Such, we have said, was the political morality of the speculative minds of that day.

In other respects Fieschi was counted virtuous and honourable and uncorrupted in the bosom of a corrupt society; so that it is very doubtful whether he had a natural son named Paolo Emilio who was afterwards a captain in the pay of France, of which fact we find mention in some memoirs. Fame said of him that he had never punished, even in the slightest manner, any person in his service or vassalage.

He deceived the Dorias and betrayed them against faith; but only for a political object. The high design of overthrowing one who had attempted his assassination and of liberating his country ought, if it cannot absolve him, to moderate the condemnation of posterity. Brutus, too, was a deceiver and he is reputed great.

Whatever be the ideas of those who read in the nineteenth century, it is clear that the statesmen of the sixteenth heartily approved of Fieschi’s work. He was what these times made him. A stranger to the spirit of the classic revolutions of the earlier part of his century, to the ascetic revolts of Savonarola, to the paralytic ardours of Soderini, he drank in with his Guelph principles the dissimulation of Rome. An Italian and a disciple of Macchiavelli, he wished to liberate his country without the aid of foreign arms.

A more favourable time could not have been desired. The outbreak of the conspiracy would terrify Charles who was deep in the German wars; Fieschi would be able to form close alliances with France, England, Denmark and Turkey; he would stir the languid pulses of the Italians and unite together Rome, Venice, Genoa, Parma and Ferrara; Lucca and Siena, yet free, were ready to join the Italian confederacy; Naples and Milan would raise their heads.

Three centuries more of abject servitude were reserved for Italy.