uty by feeding them on human flesh, and the duke watched them tear his
victims in pieces with the avidity of a lunatic.[2] In 1412 some
Milanese nobles succeeded in murdering him, and threw his mangled corpse
into the street. A prostitute is said to have covered it with roses.
Filippo Maria meanwhile had married the widow of Facino Cane,[3] who
brought him nearly half a million of florins for dowry, together with
her husband's soldiers and the cities he had seized after Gian
Galeazzo's death. By the help of this alliance Filippo was now gradually
recovering the Lombard portion of his father's dukedom. The minor
cities, purged by murder of their usurpers, once more fell into the
grasp of the Milanese despot, after a series of domestic and political
tragedies that drenched their streets with blood. Piacenza was utterly
depopulated. It is recorded that for the space of a year only three of
its inhabitants remained within the walls.

[1] I may refer to Dr. Maudsley (Mind and Matter) for a scientific
statement of the theory of madness developed by accumulated and
hereditary vices.

[2] Corio, p. 301, mentions by name Giovanni da Pusterla and
Bertolino del Maino as 'lacerati da i cani del Duca.' Members of the
families of these men afterwards helped to kill him.

[3] Beatrice di Tenda, the wife of Facino Cane, was twenty years
older than the Duke of Milan. As soon as the Visconti felt himself
assured in his duchy, he caused a false accusation to be brought
against her of adultery with the youthful Michele Oranbelli, and, in
spite of her innocence, beheaded her in 1418. Machiavelli relates
this act of perfidy with Tacitean conciseness (1st. Fior. lib. i.
vol. i. p. 55): 'Dipoi per esser grato de' benefici grandi, come
sono quasi sempre tutti i Principi, accuse Beatrice sua moglie di
stupro e la fece morire.'

Filippo, the last of the Visconti tyrants, was extremely ugly, and so
sensitive about his ill-formed person that he scarcely dared to show
himself abroad. He habitually lived in secret chambers, changed
frequently from room to room, and when he issued from his palace refused
salutations in the streets. As an instance of his nervousness, the
chroniclers report that he could not endure to hear the noise of
thunder.[1] At the same time he inherited much of his father's insight
into character, and his power of controlling men more bold and active
than himself. Bu