Bari. Here and there a jealous or discontented Milanese nobleman might
grumble, but the majority of the duke's subjects felt that in these
troublous days a strong hand was needed at the helm, and knew that they
had this strong man in the Moro.

By degrees Lodovico removed those governors of cities and fortresses
whose loyalty he had reason to suspect, and replaced them by
confidential servants. Filippo Eustachio, captain of the Castello of
Milan, a brave and honest man, Corio tells us, who had refused to yield
up the keys of the Rocca to Bona's minion, but whose brothers had been
implicated in the plot against Lodovico's life, was one day arrested by
the duke's orders, and imprisoned at Abbiategrasso; he was afterwards
released, no evidence of his guilt being produced, but his post was
filled by one of the Moro's servants. Chief among the trusted captains
in whom Lodovico placed his confidence were the Sanseverini brothers, "i
gran Sanseverini," as they were called in the court poet's verses, as
much on account of their great strength and stature as of the exalted
position which they held at the Milanese court. Their father, that
turbulent soldier Roberto, after making three desperate attempts to
unseat the prince whose return to power he had effected, and being three
times proclaimed a rebel and outlaw at Milan, had taken service under
Pope Innocent VIII. and led the campaign against Alfonso of Calabria, as
Captain-general of the Church. But before long he quarrelled with the
Pope and returned to the service of the Venetian Republic, until in
August, 1486, at the age of seventy, he fell fighting with heroic valour
against the Imperialists in the battle of Trent. Of his twelve sons,
four entered the service of their kinsman, Lodovico Sforza, and rose to
high honour and dignity. All of them were mighty men of valour like
their father before them, while a fifth, Cardinal Federigo, was to prove
a staunch adherent of the Sforzas in days to come. He inherited the
giant stature as well as the martial tastes of his family, and at the
consecration of Pope Alexander VI. is said to have lifted Borgia in his
arms and placed him on the high altar. The eldest of the brothers,
Giovanni Francesco, Count of Caiazzo, succeeded to his father's estates
in Calabria, but lived at Milan, and became one of Lodovico's chief
captains. Both Gaspare--the gallant soldier known by his surname of
Captain Fracassa--and Antonio Maria, the husband of