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Whether or not Lodovico had him poisoned, as has been alleged a charge, which, after all, rests on no proof, nor even upon the word of any person of reliance his death most certainly lies at his ambitious uncle's door. Charles was at Piacenza when the news of Gian Galeazzo's death reached him.
Before the week was over, Jacopo Andrea and his friends had succeeded in obtaining the capitulation of the French garrison, and the Castello was occupied by Cardinal Ascanio, whom Lodovico left with a small force at Milan, while he himself went on to Pavia. It was on one of the few days which he spent in Milan that his meeting with the Chevalier Bayard took place, as recorded in the joyous chronicle of the loyal servant. After a skirmish with some of Messer Galeazzo's horse at Binasco, the young French knight who had been too eager in the pursuit of his foes was taken prisoner, and brought before the duke at Milan. Lodovico, wondering at his youth, asked him what brought him in such hurried guise to Milan, and ended by restoring his sword and horse, and sending him back to his friends under the escort of a herald, to tell Ligny of the courteous treatment which he had received from the Moro, and to say what a gallant gentleman Duke Lodovico was "qui pour peu de chose n'est pas aisé
But the Carrara family still ruled at Padua, the Gonzaga at Mantua, the Este at Ferrara, while the great house of Scala was in possession of Verona. Gian Galeazzo's schemes were first directed against the Scala dynasty. Mastino had himself cherished the project of an Italian Kingdom; but he died before approaching its accomplishment. The degeneracy of his house began with his three sons.
Gian Galeazzo's stables were always well filled with horses and hounds, for Lodovico was too wise to grudge his nephew anything that tended to occupy his thoughts and distract them from public affairs.
The anarchy which prevailed in Lombardy after Gian Galeazzo's death makes it difficult to do more than signalize a few of these usurpations. Corio, pp. 292 et seq., contain the details. In the despotic families of Italy, as already hinted, there was a progressive tendency to degeneration.
When the news of Gian Galeazzo's death reached the French camp, it spread terror and imbittered the mistrust which was already springing up between the frank cavaliers and the plausible Italians with whom they had to deal. See above, p. 548. The mothers of Charles VIII. and Gian Galeazzo were sisters, princesses of Savoy.
Nightingales here and there, new-comers, tune their timid April song: but, strangest of all sounds in such a place, my comrade from the Grisons jodels forth an Alpine cowherd's melody. Auf den Alpen droben ist ein herrliches Leben! Did the echoes of Gian Galeazzo's convent ever wake to such a tune as this before?
The Duke of Calabria meanwhile was to raise Gian Galeazzo's standard in Lombardy. But that absolute agreement which is necessary in the execution of a scheme so bold and comprehensive was impossible in Italy. The Pope insisted that attention should first be paid to the Colonnesi Prospero and Fabrizio being secret friends of France, and their castles offering a desirable booty.
He came to Milan and saw the Cardinal d'Amboise, who embraced his cause warmly, and a petition for the restoration of Galeazzo's houses and estates, as well as the fortune of 240,000 ducats which he had inherited from his wife Bianca, was addressed to the King.
But, strangest of all sounds in such a place, my comrade from the Grisons jodels forth an Alpine cowherd's melody Auf den Alpen droben ist ein herrliches Leben! Did the echoes of Gian Galeazzo's convent ever wake to such a tune as this before?
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