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Now that she had aroused the wrath of Venice by her alliance with Florence, and that Romagna was actually invaded by a Venetian force, the duke sent first Fracassa and then the Count of Caiazzo to her help.
He afterwards entered the service of the young King Ferrante of Naples, and when a league was formed to oppose the French invaders, was appointed to command the cavalry, but found himself once more brought into contact with his old rivals Galeazzo and Fracassa, who were at the head of the Milanese contingent, and soon parted company with them, complaining that Messer Galeazzo would obey no one.
Two of these, Fracassa and Antonio Maria, were soon reconciled with King Louis by the powerful influence of their brothers, the Count of Caiazzo and Cardinal Sanseverino. For Galeazzo, the son-in-law and prime favourite of the Moro, a strange future was in store.
Fracassa was also present with his wife, Margherita Pia, in a chariot driven by twelve fine horses, and both he and the marquis entered the lists with their followers, but the hero of the day was Galeazzo, who appeared suddenly at the head of forty horsemen, all in deep mourning, with hair dyed black, and black and gold armour, and a herald bearing a black pennon with gold griffins.
After Messer Galeaz came his brothers, Antonio Maria and Fracassa, "ce très-beau et très-gracieux gendarme," as Commines calls him, each leading his own squadron; and finally the German infantry, consisting of some five or six thousand men.
Twice over during the next few weeks the Neapolitan forces landed at Porto Venere and Rapallo, but each time they were repulsed by the Genoese and French troops, supported by a strong Milanese contingent under the gallant Fracassa and Antonio di Sanseverino, after which Don Federigo retired to the harbour of Leghorn, and was soon recalled to defend Naples itself against the French.
And to this prowess in courtly exercises he joined a love of art and learning which especially commended him to the Moro. Unlike his brother Captain Fracassa, who refused Caterina Sforza's invitation to join in dance and song, saying that war was his trade and he sought no other, Galeazzo was a model of courtesy and grace. All fair ladies had a smile for him.
And there, too, were men like Caiazzo and Fracassa, who had eaten and drunk at the Moro's table, and were fighting under his banner only a few weeks before, and with them one, who was still more closely associated with Lodovico and his wife by the ties of blood and friendship Niccolo da Correggio, the favourite courtier and poet of the Moro, and the cousin of Beatrice.
Antonio Grumello, who was in Novara at the time, describes how late one evening, when the duke sat playing chess with Fracassa in the bishop's palace, where he lodged, a spy was led in, who told him that Trivulzio had boasted that the Moro would be his captive in less than a fortnight. "What do you say?" asked Lodovico of Almodoro, the astrologer, who had followed him into exile.
Galeazzo is with Lodovico, Caiazzo with King Louis, Fracassa and Antonio Maria are at Ferrara, and keep up an active correspondence with Lodovico and Galeazzo." Meanwhile, at Innsbrück, the exiled duke was anxiously watching the course of events, and awaiting a favourable moment to return and claim his own.
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