COMPROMISES AND PUNISHMENTS.

Gerolamo Fieschi continues the insurrection in his own name.—Consultations at the Ducal palace and fighting at San Siro.—The news of the death of Gianluigi discourages the insurgents.—Paolo Panza carries to Gerolamo the decree of pardon.—Verrina and others set sail for France.—The African slaves escape with Doria’s galley.—Sack of Doria’s galleys.—Return of Andrea and his thirst for vengeance.—Decree of condemnation.—Scipione Fieschi and his petitions to the Senate.—Schemes and intrigues of Doria to get possession of the Fieschi estates.—Destruction of the palace in Vialata.—Traditions and legends.

When Verrina had secured possession of the arsenal he landed and marched to meet the count; but, learning that Gianluigi had entered the palace on the opposite side, he halted his men and awaited the orders of his master. He could find no trace of the count from the moment he had gone on board the Capitana, and after some delay he went to that vessel and finding her bridge broken began to suspect what had happened. His courage did not fail him. He immediately ordered the waters to be searched all around the galley, and having satisfied himself of the fate of his master would not allow the body to be taken up lest the sight of it should discourage his men. He left the arsenal in the charge of Tommaso Assereto and marched into the city, sending the diver who had found the body to report their great calamity to Gerolamo Fieschi. At the same time he requested an interview with Gerolamo in order to devise means to conduct their enterprise without the inspiration of its master spirit.

Gerolamo Fieschi, though full of audacity had not a hundreth part of his brother’s talents. Seeing that the death of Gianluigi had invested him with the headship of the family, he relied on the fidelity of his vassals and fellow-conspirators, and resolved to prosecute the revolution in his own name. But, overburdened by grief and weighty thoughts, he suffered Verrina’s messenger to depart without any adequate answer. This neglect lost him the powerful support of Verrina’s genius and threw the weight of the undertaking upon himself, a youth with no training or talent for so great an enterprise. He gathered about him a select body of militia and marched towards the Ducal palace, hoping to crown the conspiracy by a single blow.

As we have said some Senators were assembled in this palace; and among them was the historian Bonfadio in company with Giovanni Battista Grimaldi.

A consultation was held after the news of the failure at San Tommaso, and it was determined to cease offering armed resistance to the conspirators and to endeavour to restore peace by friendly negotiations. Some persons offered to be the bearers of a peaceful message to the count; these were Gerolamo Fieschi and Benedetto Fiesco-Canevari, both of the Savignone branch of the family; but leaving the Ducal palace they did not again return thither.

Cardinal Gerolamo Doria and senators G. B. Lercaro and Bernardo Interiano-Castagna were then commissioned to carry to the count a request in the name of the Republic to desist from his violent proceedings and make known the object of his movement. But the commissioners having walked a short distance outside of the chancel, seeing arms and crowds of people, were terrified and turned back. At the moment, the guard of the palace, not seeing the senators, fired on the crowd wounding some persons and killing Francesco Rizzo an honoured citizen. The senators regained the hall, and a new deputation was appointed consisting of Agostino Lomellini, Giovanni Imperiale-Baliano, Ansaldo Giustiniani and Ambrogio Spinola, citizens of the highest rank and reputation. This deputation went in search of the count; but near the church of San Siro, they found the streets thronged with insurgents, and a combat occurred between the guard acting as escort for the senators and the people. It was a confused nocturnal battle and the soldiers were repulsed and fell back with the deputation.

In that midnight skirmish, Lomellini, after barely escaping death, was taken prisoner and conducted to San Tommaso; but he had the good fortune to make his escape during the same night. The brave Giustiniani alone refused to yield or fly and demanded permission to pass on, as a peace messenger, to the quarters of Count Fieschi. He was led to the presence of Gerolamo and inquired for the Count of Lavagna. Gerolamo brusquely informed him that there was no longer any Count Fieschi but himself, and added that until the Ducal palace was delivered to his forces it would be a waste of words to make propositions. He would talk of peace after the surrender of the government into the hands of his partisans. With these words, Giustiniani was dismissed and the troops ordered to collect in the piazza of San Lorenzo and in front of the adjacent palace.

Giustiniani, justly inferred from Gerolamo’s incautious speech that the rumour of the death of Gianluigi had good foundation, and that the conspiracy, having lost its able leader, would be easily crushed under the management of a young man without reputation or the support of popular affection. He returned to the palace in haste, informed the senator that Gianluigi was dead, and encouraged them to a spirited resistance.

The government recovered its confidence, sent heralds to proclaim with the sound of the trumpet the death of Gianluigi and ordered the nobles to arm their servants and dependents. These last orders were unnecessary. So soon as the trumpeters announced the fate of the great leader, the multitudes of plebeians were seized with terror, the lines of the troops thinned rapidly and the squares and streets began to be deserted.

The artisans and mechanics, particularly, who were not attached to Gerolamo by the memory of kindness or by the affection of vassals had no longer a cause to maintain and they retired in despair to their homes. It was almost day break. The best and most liberty-loving citizens felt that the enterprise had fallen into the waves with Gianluigi, and fearing to be seen in arms when the day dawned and thus to expose themselves to the vengeance of the patricians, made haste to abandon the field of victory. Many others who had stood ready to throw themselves into the ranks of the victors now sought the security of their own houses. All seemed to accept the unhappy fate of Fieschi as the judgment of God against the revolution. Uncertainty, panic and fright filled all breasts. The vassals of the count stood fast from loyalty to their lord, and the soldiers who had deserted the standards of the Republic were firm from desperation. A few others heroic by nature, among them the strong armed and stout hearted Gerolamo d’Urbino, did not tremble or hesitate but resolved to meet every danger with steadfast courage.

The government learned all these things by means of messengers and spies who circulated among the insurgents, and it was proposed to attack the forces yet remaining under the standard of Gerolamo. However, the more prudent part—taking account of the limited number of their troops, the uncertainty of their fidelity, the ferocity of the conspirators in whom desperation would increase animosity and courage and that much blood must be shed in such a contest—thought it more wise to pursue a policy of compromise and conciliation.

It happened that just then Paolo Panza appeared before the senate to protest his entire innocence of any part in the conspiracy which had been planned and executed under his very eyes, and the fathers knowing his temperate and conciliatory spirit appointed him with NicolÒ Doria as a commission to ask peace.

Panza was authorized to offer pardon to Gerolamo and all the other conspirators and insurgents on condition of their retiring from the city. The count was at first irresolute. He had not pushed his attack at once upon the palace and was now falling back and fortifying himself at the gate of the Archi. The authority of his preceptor finally prevailed over his ambition and animosity, and he promised to withdraw his men from the city. The act of pardon was written and subscribed by Ambrogio Senarega chancellor of the senate and ran as follow:—

“The illustrious Signoria and magnificent procurators of the most serene Republic of Genoa, considering that when sudden tumults occur in Republics nothing more conduces to the preservation of the state and the weal of the citizens than to destroy quickly both the causes and the means of such disorders, which grow more violent by being protracted; and Count Gio. Ludovico Fieschi having during the past night, when no one suspected his design, taken possession of two of the city gates as means for carrying on an insurrection against our authority; and this movement having created a tumult in our midst and many citizens having taken up arms in favour of the count to the great detriment of public order; and an attack having been made during this night upon the galleys of Prince Doria and most of the said galleys having been seized and disarmed and Signor Gianettino their captain killed; for these and many other persuasive and conclusive reasons believing it their duty to omit no means for restoring tranquility, and that the best way of making peace is to obtain possession of the gates without further bloodshed and to remove the insurgents outside the walls of the city; and being informed that these ends may be gained by granting a general pardon: Therefore in virtue of these our letters of grace, pardon and remission, granted under due form of ballot, the illustrious Signoria and magnificent procurators, supported by the will of a great part of the citizens who have come to this palace in the confusion of the night in order to aid in preserving the Republic, do herewith pardon free and absolve the said count Gerolamo Fieschi and all his brothers, together with every other citizen or inhabitant of this city or its jurisdiction and every foreigner of whatever rank quality or condition, for any and every crime, offence or license which they have committed in the rebellion raised this night by the said count, in taking the city gates, attacking the galleys and whatever else they have said or done with or without arms to give aid and comfort to this said plot, conspiracy or insurrection. And we declare that in whatever manner they may have been concerned in this conspiracy and whatever crimes, including high treason, they may have committed, none of them, either collectively or singly, shall be liable to question or trial, to confiscation of goods or personal harm. We intend that this pardon shall be universal and embrace every offence whatever, committed in executing the designs of the said Count Fieschi and we grant herewith the most complete pardon, remission and absolution.”

Count Gerolamo, trusting to the good faith of the Republic, spent a brief hour in Carignano and then set out with his followers for Montobbio, not wishing to depart from Italy lest the Dorias should assail his feuds. Ottobuono, Cornelio, Verrina, Sacco, Calcagno and other leaders of the conspiracy took a more prudent course and set sail on their galley for France. Mindful that a government rarely or never pardons treason, they removed themselves from its reach and took with them the prisoners they had captured at San Tommaso. When they arrived off the mouth of the Varo they set the captives at liberty; among them were Sebastiano Lercaro, Manfredi Centurione and Vincenzo Vaccari. By releasing these prisoners they deprived themselves of a guarranty which might have saved their lives at a later period. These conspirators were not the only persons who sailed from the port that morning.

The convicts and Turkish captives on board the Doria galleys had broken their chains and they resolved to avail themselves of the universal confusion to make their escape. The ships of Prince Doria, Antonio Doria and some other private persons were lying dismantled in the harbour. In the fury of the tumult the galleys of Andrea were plundered by the plebeians and by the slaves, and the latter collected with their booty on board the Capitana which had escaped the fury of the sack. There was a good reason for this exception.

This galley, formerly called the Temperanza, had been a Venitian vessel and the men of Barbary had captured her and four other triremes in 1539, near Corfu in the waters of Paxo, taking prisoner at the same time the Commandant Francesco Gritti.

Dragut Rais was so pleased with the sailing qualities and rich equipment of the Capitana that he made her his flag-ship. Gianettino Doria captured her in the engagement in which the corsair himself fell into our hands. On the night of the second of January the African prisoners to the number of three hundred or more threw themselves on board this galley, as a piece of their own property, and sailed out to sea. Though two galleons of Bernardino Mendozza, which were anchored in another part of the harbour and so escaped the pillage, were sent in chase at early dawn, the fugitives made good their flight and after a long voyage arrived safely in Algiers.

The Doria fleet suffered grave damages in that night pillage, the furniture and rigging being reduced to a mass of ruins. These disorders originated with the liberated slaves, and the bad example was followed by the convicts who afterwards carried confusion and alarm into the city. Many of the lowest class of the people penetrated into the foundries and shipyards of Doria, and what they could not carry away they threw into the sea. During the following days, the convicts were hunted out in every quarter of the city and taken back to their oars, and some of the equipments of the ships were recovered by the zealous efforts of Adamo Centurione whose pecuniary interests were united to those of Doria.

It is worth while to observe that the storm of this conspiracy broke over the ships of Andrea. The government issued a proclamation that whoever should have taken or should find anything belonging to the galleys of the prince, as arquebuses, pikes, halberds, visors, helmets, corselets, axes or any other arms or tool belonging to these vessels, should within three days consign them to the justices in the Riviera, or to the agents of Doria in Genoa, or deposit them in the churches of San Vito and Annunziata.

Our historians have neglected to describe one of the galleys of Doria which was a wonderful specimen of Genoese naval architecture. She was built by Doria in 1539 for the personal use of Charles V. in his expedition to Tunis, and surpassed all other galleys by fifteen palms in length and four palms in breadth[47]. She bore three standards of crimson damask, each twenty-three palms in length and beautifully embroidered in gold. The one in the midst had in the centre a star with golden rays and appropriate inscriptions; that at the stern bore the figure of an angel and the one on the prow a shield, a helmet and a sword. Besides, there were three flags at the poop also of damask and thirty palms in length, and another banner of white damask was embroidered with chalices, pontifical keys and red crosses, with fitting inscriptions. There were two flags of red damask bearing the imperial columns and the device—plus ultra—invented by the Milanese Marliano, physician to Charles V. and an excellent mathematician. The vessel also had twenty-four other flags of yellow damask and appropriate devices. The saloon was adorned with beautiful arabesques in blue and gold, and the sides were tapestried with cloth of gold and silver, hung so as to represent pavillioned domes. The castle on the poop was covered with exquisite carvings and there were two carpets for the deck, one of scarlet cloth for daily use and another, for state occasions, of crimson velvet and brocade of gold. The crew wore satin jackets. The gun carriages, rigging and other furniture were all in the most perfect style and finish of the naval art of that period. The slaves and convicts ruined all these splendid equipments and furniture.

After this pillage, prisoners of war and other slaves were treated with greater severity. For, though up to this period the young men served at the oar, yet many of the Mamalukes, as the Barbary prisoners were called in Genoa, had some privileges from the government and their servitude was not of a strict and painful character. Some of them had the permission to engage in minute traffic within the city and had their markets in the piazza of the arsenal and the Piano of St. Andrea. There they shaved and trimmed the beards of the citizens, and none could equal them in this art. They traded in coffee, sugar, brandy, pipes, tobacco and game. They practised small frauds in their trade and some of them grew rich, while many were able to buy themselves out of bondage. These privileges were now taken away from them, and were not restored until many years after. In this way the rigours of slavery were increased among us, though the system was restricted to the “infidels” who were either bought in Egypt or captured in war. It is true that a law of the Republic forbade the buying and selling of slaves in the land of the Sultan; but this provision was evaded by shipping the captives to Caffa where the Grand Turk sent agents for the traffic. Our statutes by enacting grave penalties against slave-stealers, held slaves to be the absolute property of their masters; and in 1588 it was ruled that in a case of shipwreck the loss should be distributed pro rata counting all sorts of merchandise “including male and female slaves, horses and other animals.”

The government hastened to inform the emperor and Ferrante Gonzaga of the insurrection. The latter sent Cavalier Cicogna on a mission to the senate and he himself at the head of a strong force advanced to Voghera to watch the movements of the Fieschi at Montobbio. All the Italian princes friendly to the empire congratulated the Republic on its escape from the conspiracy. Cardinal Cibo, who sent as his messenger Ercole de Bucchi, the Duke of Florence, by his legate Jacopo de’ Medici, and the ten conservators of liberty of Siena, by M. Nicodemo, offered their services and assistance to the government in case of need.

We find also a letter of Giulio Cybo, Marquis of Massa, in which he declares that he has collected troops at Borghetto to march to the assistance of the Republic; but it became known afterwards that these troops had been massed to aid the Fieschi insurrection. They did not pertain alone to the Marquis of Massa, but also to Gasparo di Fosnuovo and other feudatories. We shall presently speak of the congratulations sent by the Pope and Pierluigi Farnese.

The government pledged itself to universal amnesty; we shall now see how it kept faith. Encouraged by the departure of the Fieschi, the senate despatched Benedetto Centurione and Domenico Doria to escort Andrea back to the city and to condole with him for the loss of Gianettino. This last was a piece of hypocrisy, for they secretly rejoiced over their deliverance from the rising tyrant. Andrea returned on the sixth of January and was received with regal pomp. We learn from old documents that the wrathful old man cloaked his vengeance under the mantle of patriotic zeal, and, assembling the fathers on the very day of his return, told them in well-rounded phrases that the amnesty, having been granted under the pressure of necessity and without the free choice of the senate, ought not to be observed. It was, he said, of bad example and precedent to treat with rebels; in a free country the voice of pity and affection ought to be unheeded and the rigour of the law steadfastly administered. It was needful, to save the Republic from the perils which still impended, to make terrible examples. The senate should make haste to prove to CÆsar its zeal by punishing the outrages perpetrated against ships under his flag; those only deserved pardon whose participation in the conspiracy had been forced or the effect of momentary passion. The Fieschi as enemies of the emperor and rebels against the Republic ought to be condemned to death and their goods confiscated. In no other way could the senate meet the wishes of CÆsar and prove their zeal for the public safety.

Those who did not agree with these sentiments of vengeance rather than justice did not dare to lift their voices against the will of Doria. The senate referred the question to a commission of jurists, who rather than incur the enmity of Doria, devoted themselves to find a justification for breach of faith and a decree of blood. They reported:—“The act of pardon is not binding because it was conceded in a rebellion with the sword at the throat of the nation; and because it was not granted in a regular session of the senate but by a number of them casually met and having no power under the laws to make decrees and issue amnesties.” They further declared that Doria as the representative of CÆsar could proceed against the rebels, because neither he nor his master had given any promise of pardon. This opinion was chiefly invented by Bernardo Ottobuono who exhausted much subtle argument to procure the condemnation of the Fieschi. His dialectic and legal skill was at that time in great repute among the partisans of Spain; now history stirs his forgotten pleadings, only to put a note of infamy before his name. The senate, having heard the complacent judgment of its legal advisers, took up the filthy burden and hastened to be rid of it by condemning the Fieschi. It is a new proof that Prince Doria possessed an absolute power over the Republic. But this solicitude for vengeance has crowned his name with an eternal reproach.

The act of pardon was revoked; the Fieschi and the soldiers who had deserted the standards of the senate, particularly Gerolamo d’Urbino, were declared guilty of high treason. The decree of condemnation bore the date of the 12th of February. We report it in full because, though rather an act of wrath than of justice, it serves to acquit Gianluigi of many crimes of which he was afterwards accused.

“The illustrious Doge and magnificent Governors and Procurators of the most serene Republic of Genoa.

“Every state is governed by two things which are divine principles, reward and punishment, the first encouraging the good to honest living and love of country and the second withholding the bad from treason and insurrection. If the reward of well-doing be taken away the motives for patriotism cease to exist and if criminals are not punished the ill-disposed are encouraged to continuance in disobedience when new occasions are presented them. Iterated crimes are the most dangerous, since they always increase in magnitude and peril, and small beginnings of treason threaten the safety of Republics.

“On the night before the third of January in this present year, Gianluigi Fieschi having secretly assembled armed men and concealed them in his house, corrupted and enticed some soldiers in the pay of the Republic, and with his brothers Gerolamo, Ottobuono and Cornelio and other partners in his guilt, issued forth armed, assailed and killed many of the guards, seized the gates of the city and cruelly assassinated Gianettino, lieutenant of Prince Doria, Captain General of the emperor on the seas; then, uttering seditious cries, they incited the people to take up arms against the Republic, and induced some of them to break into the arsenal where lay the unprotected galleys of the said Prince Doria, the defender of Christianity, and to pillage the said vessels and liberate their slaves and convicts.

“Not content with these crimes, the conspirators turned their arms against the commissioners of the senate, and demanded that this Ducal palace should be surrendered into their hands, threatening death to such as should resist their will. Having been admonished to lay down their arms and cease to disturb the public peace, they refused to obey until they obtained grace and pardon for themselves and their accomplices, which condition the senate accepted, believing it the most speedy remedy for the disorders of the afflicted city, and the best means of saving public liberty. The said conspirators then departed from the city, not because of the pardon given by the senate, but because Gianluigi Fieschi had perished in the sea, many of their followers had deserted them and the troops of the Republic had recovered one of the gates of the city.

“These facts show the heinousness of the crime attempted against the state and what weighty evils were devised to its hurt, and furthermore that the Republic is still in peril from the consequences of the pardon extorted by force and without foundation in justice, equity or religion. The authors of these acts of treason must not escape the reward of their crimes.

“Therefore, we the illustrious Doge and magnificent governors of the most serene Republic of Genoa, having taken our vote in due form of law, do declare and condemn as traitors, rebels and enemies of the state, the late Gianluigi Fieschi and his brothers Gerolamo, Ottobuono and Cornelio, and we banish them perpetually from the dominions of Genoa and confiscate all their property for the use of the state. We further order that the Fieschi palace in Vialata be razed to the ground and we give authority to the rectors of the city to destroy also all other houses belonging to the Fieschi family, if they shall deem it of public utility.

“We further declare and condemn as public enemies and traitors with the same penalties Raffaello Sacco of Savona, doctor in law and auditor of the said Gianluigi Fieschi, Vincenzo Calcagno, servant of Fieschi, and Giacobo Conte, son of the late physician of that name (who was an Hebrew) and captain of a galley of the said Gianluigi. We decree also that the houses of the said persons be reduced to ruins.

“We further declare and condemn as rebels and enemies of the Republic Giovanni Battista De Franchi—Verrina, Scipione dal Carretto of Savona, Domenico Bacigalupo, Gerolamo Garaventa and Desiderio Cambialanza; and we confiscate their goods and authorize the illustrious rectors to destroy their houses if they shall believe such destruction for the good of the Republic.

“We also confiscate the goods of Battista son of the late Pantaleo Imperiale-Baliano, Geronimo, son of the late Vincenzo Usudimare, of Gerolamo De Magiolo son of Martino, of Fiesco Botto and Lazzaro De Caprile, and we banish each of them for fifty years. These persons are ordered to depart forthwith from the city and the territories of the Republic and to remain abroad under peril of death.

“We also declare rebels and banish the undernamed persons for the periods following their names, varying according to the degree of their guilt: Francesco Pinello of Gavi for eight years; Francesco Curlo, Bernardo Celesia, Tommaso de Assereto called Verze, Gerolamo Marrigliano, called Garaventino and Gerolamo Fregoso, son of the late Antonio, for fifty years each; Battista Giustiniano son of the late Baldassaro, Paolo Geronimo Fieschi, Francesco Badaracchi and Pantaleo Badaracchi called Tallone—brothers and butchers in Suziglia, for ten years each; Gerolamo del Fiesco son of the late Gio. Giorgio for ten years; Francesco Marrigliano, son of the late Biaggio, barber in Bisagno, and Andrea di Savignone for five years each; NicolÒ of Valdetaro, Giovanni Battista Retiliaro and Benedetto Botto for ten years each. All the said persons will be required to leave the territories of the Republic within fifteen days and to remain beyond the frontiers for the periods assigned them severally under peril of death.

“Whereas the laws of the Republic forbid citizens to hold commerce with banished persons under heavy penalties, to prevent any from incurring these penalties through ignorance, we ordain that no citizen whatever shall hold any intercourse or have any correspondence by messengers or by letters with the said rebels and exiles, particularly that no one shall go or send any message to Montobbio under the penalties contained in the laws. And let every citizen be wary of his conduct, for they who shall be guilty will be severely punished.”

Many have written that Scipione Fieschi was also involved in the condemnation of his brothers; but the documents above given prove the contrary. This youth was hardly eighteen years of age and was pursuing legal studies in Bologna according to the custom of Genoese noblemen. We find in the list of the doctors in law of 1390 the names of Doria, Spinola, Salvago, Imperiali, Dinegro, Grilli and Montaldi, and, as we have shown, the Fieschi were conspicuous in legal learning. From a very early period they had studied law in Bologna. The registers of illustrious pupils from 1260 to 1300 contains the names of several Fieschi who attended the lectures of the distinguished jurists of that school, chief of whom was Jacopo d’ Albenga. About 1348, Emanuel Fieschi, in order to facilitate the studies of his family in that city, founded there a perpetual college, and endowed it with a liberal income. His nephew Papiniano added largely to the endowment.

When Scipione heard of the events of Genoa, he removed to Valdetaro, and from this feud of his family wrote to the senate, on the 17th of January, as follows:—

“When I heard of the insurrection in my native city I was more dead than alive; and if the shedding of my blood or giving my life could repair the misfortune, your excellencies may be sure I would not shrink from the sacrifice. I have an intense sorrow of heart that one of my house should have attempted revolution, and especially a revolt against the authority of that prince who has always protected and benefited our family and to whom I hope always to be a good servant. Being most innocent in this conspiracy, I pray your excellencies to receive and hold me as a good son of the Republic. Such I am and hope always to remain, ever willing to expose my life to any peril for the public good. I pray you not to abandon me as a member of my brother’s family, to have compassion on my misfortune and not to permit that the fault of another shall prejudice me or bring me evil. With a heart disturbed and pained by these events beyond my power to describe, I kiss your hands and recommend myself to your clemency.”

We shall hereafter see how the senate was affected by his pathetic appeal, and how it accepted him as a son.

Doria, indefatigable in the pursuit of revenge, instituted search for the corpse of Gianluigi. Few believed he was dead, and Doria feared that he had escaped into France and was preparing to let loose a new tempest upon the government.

After four days of search, the corpse was found by a diver named Pallino. Doria wished to vent his wrath and awe the people by suspending the body before the gates of the arsenal; but he did not dare to run the risk of a new popular outbreak. The body was therefore returned to its grave in the waves. Two months after Doria caused it to be fished up again, weighted with a mass of stones, carried out and launched into the deep sea.

The vacancy in the office of Doge, created by the resignation of Giovanni Battista di Fornari, was filled by the election of Bendetto Gentile. Fearing that the confederates of Fieschi might renew their insurrection and that it might break out in the very hall of the senate, the new Doge forbade the wearing of arms in the Ducal palace. At the same time he sent Ceva Doria as a legate to CÆsar in Germany (the brothers Luca and Giovanni Battista Grimaldi were already at that court for other business) to inform the emperor fully of the perils from which Genoa had escaped and to assure him of her constant devotion. Ceva Doria had secret instructions to ask the consent of CÆsar to the absorption of the Fieschi estates by the Republic. The request particularly regarded Varese, Roccatagliata and Montobbio, in the last of which Count Gerolamo was fortified. Ceva Doria was instructed to manage the matter with much dexterity. He was to represent that Varese and Roccatagliata belonged by ancient rights to the Republic and that Montobbio was a cause of incessant irritation and frequent danger to the city; that the Republic would be gratified if the emperor should wish to honour and reward his faithful servant Figueroa with some feud; that they had already occupied Roccatagliata, Varese and Calice and that Ferrante Gonzaga had protested, but that Domenico Doria, the commissioner of the Republic, had satisfied the imperial governor that the occupation was necessary to protect these feuds from the Lords of Lando. Ceva Doria was also instructed to devise a plan for securing the imperial approval to the confiscation of the castles of Torriglia and San Stefano.

When Prince Doria learned of these negotiations with the emperor, not wishing that the rich estates of his enemy should go into other hands than his own he sent Francesco Grimaldi to the emperor to oppose the wishes of the senate and to obtain the best of the Fieschi feuds for himself. He did in the end obtain the greater part of this property, as we shall hereafter show. Antonio Doria also prayed the Spanish monarch to permit him to occupy Santo Stefano, he having bought the Malaspina claims upon the feud. Antonio at the same time besought the senate to preserve strict secrecy in this negotiation lest the prince should be offended on hearing of the intrigue. Ceva Doria complained strongly of this disagreement between the envoy of the Republic and that of Andrea; particularly that Grimaldi preserved a surly and reserved manner and refused to communicate anything of importance to his colleague.

The emperor sent Don Rodrigo Mendozza to the senate to report his satisfaction at the escape of the Republic from such grave perils. He also sent letters to Andrea containing solemn assurances that he would repair the losses sustained by the prince. At the same time he ordered Don Ferrante Gonzaga to proceed to the punishment of the Fieschi without a moment’s delay. The crime for which the imperial governor was required to proceed against them was that, being vassals of the empire, they had assailed the emperor’s galleys and admirals. Gonzaga wrote to the senate and to Doria on the subject, but his proceedings did not have any result because Andrea and the senate had already decreed the utter extermination of the Fieschi. CÆsar did not, however, content himself with this, and, on the 27th of October, 1547, he proclaimed the Fieschi as rebels and divested them of all their feuds, which he gave to Andrea to be held for the children of Gianettino. The cession included Montobbio, Varese, Roccatagliata, Valdetaro, Pontremoli and Santo Stefano. This first decree did not take full effect, because the Republic had some of the castles in its power, especially Pontremoli where the inhabitants had anticipated Gonzaga and surrendered to Gasparo Di Fornari who occupied it for the Republic.

Doria was not content with obtaining the greater part of the Fieschi feuds. He insisted upon the destruction of the sumptuous palace in Vialata and it was razed to the foundations. The work of demolition was conducted with such angry haste that a great part of the walls fell into the gardens of Ambrogio Gazella and the Republic paid for the removal of the rubbish. A slab of infamy was affixed to a wall near the ruins bearing a decree that nothing should ever be built upon the ground where a citizen had conspired against his country. The inscription no longer exists. The tables now in Vialata refer to rights of private property. Merciful time has cancelled the records of infamy against Gianluigi, though he has preserved them against the names of Vacchero, Raggio, Della Torre and Balbi.[48] The stone (as we find in a decree of 1715) was torn down, not by order of the Doge but by unknown hands, about 1712, perhaps by some of Gianluigi’s relatives.

Ancient tradition tells us that the marbles of the Fieschi palace were employed to embellish that of the Spinola which was erected on the ruins of the tower of the Luccoli. It is that edifice faced with alternate black and white marbles which stands on the piazza Fontane Morose. We know not whether the tradition be true, but it is certain that the statues in the palace of Spinola pertain to the family of its owners. The stones and marbles of Vialata were bought at auction by one Antonio Roderio and were scattered. The sculptures and other ornaments of the magnificent fountain which adorned the garden shared the same fate. They were the work of Giovanni Maria di Pasalo who, not having been entirely paid for his work by Fieschi, received some compensation from the Republic. The government took possession of the furniture and precious vessels which the palace contained not excepting the silver service which according to a memoir of Count Gianluigi Mario to the king of France (preserved in Beriana) was valued at one hundred thousand crowns.

Nothing remains of the splendid residence of the counts but a narrow subterranean passage whose architecture is of the fifteenth century. The walls are brick and it is covered with slate. Time and damp have nearly destroyed it. A branch of it once extended to the sea where the battery of Cava was afterwards erected, but not a vestige of this part now remains. The principal passage led to the valley of Bisagno, outside the gate of the Archi, and served for a means of retreat from the city in times of revolution. It is probable that this passage furnished Gianluigi with the means of introducing into the city, a few days before the insurrection, the armed men from his castles.

The imperial party were not content with the ruins of the Fieschi palace, but wished to destroy all the monuments of the family’s greatness. Two houses fronting the cathedral were appropriated for the debts of Fieschi and thus escaped ruin. The very churches were not spared. The arms surmounted by a cardinal’s hat which Lorenzo Fieschi had placed in Santo Stefano in 1499 when Donato Benci, a Florentine sculptor and architect, executed some works in that church, were now removed. Throughout the Eastern Riviera, the Doria faction glutted their vengeance upon the dwellings and castles of the Fieschi. In Chiavari they publicly tore down and threw into the sea an inscription which attributed the foundation of the church of St. Giovanni to Bardone Fieschi.

Nor were the Dorias alone in hastening the destruction of the Fieschi palace. The Sauli whose quarrel with the Fieschi we have mentioned, had seen with envious eyes the erection of a palace in their neighbourhood which outshone the splendour of their own, and they were ambitious of being sole masters of the hill of Carignano. There were other stimulants to vengeance. Popular legends tell us (and we count legends more valuable than the breath which scatters them) that the Sauli family attended divine service in the church of the Fieschi in Vialata. One day Bendinelli Sauli, in a friendly manner asked the Fieschi to delay the service a little in order that his people might be present. The Fieschi responded:—“If you wish to hear mass at your pleasure, build a church of your own.” Sauli remembered the discourteous speech and, in 1481, bequeathed two hundred and fifty shares in the bank of St. George to be left at interest for sixty years and then expended in erecting a magnificent church and two hospitals in Carignano.

The descendants of Bendinello, stimulated by old and new antipathies, were gratified witnesses of the destruction of the mansion of their rivals, and near it they erected the church which commemorated the bequest of their ancestor. As soon as the palace of the Fieschi was destroyed, Galeazzo Alessi was called to Genoa and in 1552 he commenced the church of Carignano. The superb basilica cost the Sauli a hundred thousand gold crowns. It would be a perfect monument to their wealth and public spirit, if the front were not disfigured by some statues of inferior workmanship. They embellished their vengeance by a beautiful christian charity which survives the antipathies out of which it grew. Stefano Sauli, a descendant of Bendinello, bequeathed another large legacy to construct the massive bridge which conducts to the church and unites the two hills.

But public and private wrath did not fully attain their end. A beautiful picture of Gianluigi and portraits of Verrina and Sacco escaped the vandalism of their enemies. In the dark and narrow chapel of the cathedral near the tomb of the Fieschi family, there is a picture painted by Luca Cambiaso representing the protectors of Genoa, St. John the Baptist, St. Lawrence and St. George. In the face of the last saint you have the features of Gianluigi, and tradition tell us that the others are Sacco and Verrina.

It did not occur to Andrea Doria, when he was destroying every trace of his rival, that the love of friends would entrust the image of the dead to the holy guardianship of the altar.