Having fawned upon the people that they might help him to crush the barons,
Farnese was now crushing the people whose service he no longer needed.
Extortion had reduced them to poverty and despair and their very houses
were being pulled down to supply material for the new citadel, the Duke
recking little who might thus be left without a roof over his head.
"He has gone mad," said Galeotto, and laughed. "Pier Luigi could not more
effectively have played his part so as to serve our ends. The nobles he
alienated long ago, and now the very populace is incensed against him and
weary of his rapine. It is so bad with him that of late he has remained
shut in the citadel, and seldom ventures abroad, so as to avoid the sight
of the starving faces of the poor and the general ruin that he is making of
that fair city. He has given out that he is ill. A little blood-letting
will cure all his ills for ever."
Upon the morrow Galeotto picked thirty of his men, and gave them their
orders. They were to depose their black liveries, and clad as countryfolk,
but armed as countryfolk would be for a long journey, they were severally
to repair afoot to Piacenza, and assemble there upon the morning of
Saturday at the time and place he indicated. They went, and that afternoon
we followed.
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