Pagina 569 van 1118

It appears that he even contracted new habits, of which the same

historian speaks with mysterious brevity. "Foreign princes had

recourse to him for important murders, and they even sent him

reinforcements of soldiers to act under his orders."

At last, whether the proclamation of his outlawry was withdrawn

from some powerful intercession, or that the audacity of the man

outweighed all authority, he resolved to return home; not exactly

to Milan, but to a castle on the frontier of the Bergamascan

territory, which then belonged to the Venetian state. "This

house," says Ripamonti, "was a focus of sanguinary mandates. The

household was composed of such as had been guilty of great

crimes; the cooks, and the scullions even, were not free from the

stain of murder." Besides this notable household, he had men

resembling them, stationed in different places of the two states,

on the confines of which he lived.