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Splendid offers were made to me, and the independence of California would have been secured, had I only had two small vessels to reduce the southern seaports which had not yet declared themselves, either fearing the consequences of a rebellion, or disliking the idea of owing their liberation to a foreign condottiere, and a large force of savages.
"What, are you descended from the great condottiere Facino Cane, whose lands won by the sword were taken by the Dukes of Milan?" "E vero," returned he. His gesture startled me; it told of patriotism extinguished and weariness of life. "But if you were once a Venetian senator, you must have been a wealthy man. How did you lose your fortune?" "In evil days."
I only know that in the afternoon, when the air was aglow with the sunset, I was standing before the church of Saints John and Paul and looking up at the small square-jawed face of Bartolommeo Colleoni, the terrible condottiere who sits so sturdily astride of his huge bronze horse, on the high pedestal on which Venetian gratitude maintains him.
Here the adventurers were to find waiting for them a company of Free Companions, some six hundred lances, under the command of the very illustrious condottiere, Messer Griffo of the Claw, to whom, at the point of conjunction, Messer Guido was instantly to surrender his temporary leadership of the dedicated fellowship.
"The man who had led the soldiers from battle, whom they had acclaimed as triumphant and laurel-crowned Caesar, around their campfires, was a poor condottiere , who possessed nothing in the world except his clothes, his buff jerkin and his heavy sword.
Corio, p. 255, does not draw attention to the lowness of Sforza's origin, but says that he was only twelve years of age when he enlisted in the corps of Boldrino da Panigale, condottiere of the Church. His robust physical qualities were hereditary for many generations in his family. His son Francesco was tall and well made, the best runner, jumper, and wrestler of his day.
"So I will," answered the condottiere; "if I had won the battle, I had been the most victorious man in the world; and, though I have lost it, still have I the great honor of having had against me a King of France in person."
At the close of his life, when captain-general of the Italian league, he drew in war 165,000 ducats of annual stipend, 45,000 being his own share; in peace, 65,000 in all. As a Condottiere, Federigo was famous in this age of broken faith for his plain dealing and sincerity.
As for the others, they were clerks, who in one way or another had managed to get their seats men with no great permanent stake in the community, the modern substitute for the condottiere class. The Four Corners gave them a place to eat and drink and play a long game of poker, which amusements satisfied their cravings for diversion.
A rupture had taken place between the two cantons respecting the tolls on the Saone, which separated the territory of the Haedui from that of the Sequani, and about the year 683 the German prince Ariovistus with some 15,000 armed men had crossed the Rhine as condottiere of the Sequani. Ariovistus on the Middle Rhine
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