That same day he set out again upon his conspirator's work, whose aim was
not only the life of Pier Luigi, but the entire shattering of the
Pontifical sway in Parma and Piacenza. Some days later he sent me another
score of lances--for he kept his forces scattered about the country whilst
gradually he increased their numbers.
Thereafter we waited for events at Pagliano, the drawbridge raised, and
none entering save after due challenge.
We expected an attack which never came; for Pier Luigi did not dare to lead
an army against an Imperial fief upon such hopeless grounds as were his
own. Possibly, too, Galeotto's memorial may have caused the Pope to impose
restraint upon his dissolute son.
Cosimo d'Anguissola, however, had the effrontery to send a messenger a week
later to Pagliano, to demand the surrender of his wife, saying that she was
his by God's law and man's, and threatening to enforce his rights by an
appeal to the Vatican.
That we sent the messenger empty-handed away, it is scarce necessary to
chronicle. I was in command at Pagliano, holding it in Bianca's name, as
Bianca's lieutenant and castellan, and I made oath that I would never lower
the bridge to admit an enemy.
But Cosimo's message aroused in us a memory that had lain dormant these
days.
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