himself
of Perugia in 1400, having paved his way for the usurpation by
causing Biordo Michelotti, the successor of the Baglioni to be
assassinated by his friend Francesco Guidalotti. It will be noticed
that he proceeded slowly and surely in the case of each annexation,
licking over his prey after he had throttled it and before he
swallowed it, like a boa-constrictor.

There remained no power in Italy, except the Republic of Florence and
the exiled but invincible Francesco da Carrara, to withstand his further
progress. Florence delayed his conquests in Tuscany. Francesco managed
to return to Padua. Still the peril which threatened the whole of Italy
was imminent. The Duke of Milan was in the plenitude of manhood--rich,
prosperous, and full of mental force. His acquisitions were well
cemented; his armies in good condition; his treasury brim full; his
generals highly paid. All his lieutenants in city and in camp respected
the iron will and the deep policy of the despot who swayed their action
from his arm-chair in Milan. He alone knew how to use the brains and
hands that did him service, to keep them mutually in check, and by their
regulated action to make himself not one but a score of men. At last,
when all other hope of independence for Italy had failed, the plague
broke out with fury in Lombardy. Gian Galeazzo retired to his isolated
fortress of Marignano in order to escape infection. Yet there in 1402 he
sickened. A comet appeared in the sky, to which he pointed as a sign of
his approaching death--'God could not but signalize the end of so
supreme a ruler,' he told his attendants. He died aged 55. Italy drew a
deep breath. The danger was passed.

The systematic plan conceived by Gian Galeazzo for the enslavement of
Italy, the ability and force of intellect which sustained him in its
execution, and the power with which he bent men to his will, are
scarcely more extraordinary than the sudden dissolution of his dukedom
at his death. Too timid to take the field himself, he had trained in his
service a band of great commanders, among whom Alberico da Barbino,
Facino Cane, Pandolfo Malatesta, Jacopo dal Verme, Gabrino Fondulo, and
Ottobon Terzo were the most distinguished. As long as he lived and held
them in leading strings, all went well. But at his death his two sons
were still mere boys. He had to intrust their persons, together with the
conduct of his hardly won dominions, to these captains in