occasion, it is said, a similar sum of money for the honor of a
royal alliance.[4]

[1] M. Villani, v. 81. Compare Corio, p. 230. Corio gives the date
1356.

[2] Namely, Alba, Cuneo, Carastro, Mondovico, Braida. See Corio, p.
238, who adds sententiously, 'il che quasi fu l' ultima roina del
suo stato.'

[3] Corio (pp. 239, 240) gives the bill of fare of the banquet.

[4] Sismondi says he gave 600,000 florins to Charles, the brother of
Isabella, but authorities differ about the actual amount.

Galeazzo held his court at Pavia. His brother reigned at Milan. Bernabo
displayed all the worst vices of the Visconti. His system of taxation
was most oppressive, and at the same time so lucrative that he was able,
according to Giovio's estimate, to settle nine of his daughters at an
expense of something like two millions of gold pieces. A curious
instance of his tyranny relates to his hunting establishment. Having
saddled his subjects with the keep of 5,000 boar-hounds, he appointed
officers to go round and see whether these brutes were either too lean
or too well-fed to be in good condition for the chase. If anything
appeared defective in their management, the peasants on whom they were
quartered had to suffer in their persons and their property.[1] This
Bernabo was also remarkable for his cold-blooded cruelty. Together with
his brother, he devised and caused to be publicly announced by edict
that State criminals would be subjected to a series of tortures
extending over the space of forty days. In this infernal programme
every variety of torment found a place, and days of respite were so
calculated as to prolong the lives of the victims for further suffering,
till at last there was little left of them that had not been hacked and
hewed and flayed away.[2] To such extremities of terrorism were the
despots driven in the maintenance of their illegal power.

[1] 'Per cagione di questa caccia continoamente teneva cinque mila
cani; e la maggior parte di quelle distribuiva alla custodia de i
cittadini, e anche a i contadini, i quali niun altro cane che quelli
potevano tenere. Questi due volte il mese erano tenuti a far la
mostra. Onde trovandoli macri in gran somma di danari erano
condannati, e se grossi erano, incolpandoli del troppo, erano
multati; se morivano, li pigliava il tutto.--Corio, p. 247.

Read M. Villani, vii. 48, for the story of a peasant who was give