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Whilst this army departed on one side, that of Ferdinand,

commanded by the Count of Collato, advanced on the other. It had

invaded the country of the Grisons, and the Valtelline, and was

preparing to come down on the Milanese. Besides the usual terrors

which such an expectation was calculated to excite, the report

was spread, that the plague lurked in the imperial army.

Alessandro Tadino, one of the conservators of the public health,

was charged by the tribunal to state to the governor the

frightful danger which threatened the country, if this army

should obtain the pass which opened on Mantua.