land between
the Duchy and the Cantons. Intriguing at one time with the Duke of
Milan, at another with his foes the French or Spaniards, Il Medeghino
found free scope for his peculiar genius in a guerilla warfare,
carried on with the avowed purpose of restoring the Valtelline to
Milan. To steer a plain course through that chaos of politics, in
which the modern student, aided by the calm clear lights of history
and meditation, cannot find a clue, was of course impossible for an
adventurer whose one aim was to gratify his passions and exalt himself
at the expense of others. It is therefore of little use to seek
motives of statecraft or of patriotism in the conduct of Il Medeghino.
He was a man shaped according to Machiavelli's standard of political
morality--self-reliant, using craft and force with cold indifference
to moral ends, bent only upon wringing for himself the largest share
of this world's power for men who, like himself, identified virtue
with unflinching and immitigable egotism.

Il Medeghino's father was Bernardo de' Medici, a Lombard, who neither
claimed nor could have proved cousinship with the great Medicean
family of Florence. His mother was Cecilia Serbelloni. The boy was
educated in the fashionable humanistic studies, nourishing his young
imagination with the tales of Roman heroes. The first exploit by which
he proved his _virtu_, was the murder of a man he hated, at the
age of sixteen. This 'virile act of vengeance,' as it was called,
brought him into trouble, and forced him to choose the congenial
profession of arms. At a time when violence and vigour passed for
manliness, a spirited assassination formed the best of introductions
to the captains of mixed mercenary troops. Il Medeghino rose in
favour with his generals, helped to reinstate Francesco Sforza in his
capital, and, returning himself to Milan, inflicted severe vengeance
on the enemies who had driven him to exile. It was his ambition, at
this early period of his life, to be made governor of the Castle of
Musso, on the Lake of Como. While fighting in the neighbourhood, he
had observed the unrivalled capacities for defence presented by its
site; and some pre-vision of his future destinies now urged him to
acquire it, as the basis for the free marauding life he planned. The
headland of Musso lies about halfway between Gravedona and Menaggio,
on the right shore of the Lake of Como. Planted on a pedestal of
rock, and surmounted by a sheer cliff, t