"True; but he must then have run the risk of being confronted with him whose name he took. I cannot think such a thing could have happened without discovery."

"A suspicion several times crossed me that I have seen the man before."

"Where and when ?"

"The Egyptian adventurer I saw last in Venice."

Manfredi started but immediately regained his composure. "It is impossible—it cannot be; that man has bewitched you, Nevil; he cannot be everywhere."

"Indeed, I hope I may be in the wrong." "Do you take him for a spy of Visconti?" said the Count.

"I have heard that John Galeazzo keeps such men in his employ."

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Impossible!" said Manfredi, after a moment's thought; "he could not have passed the guard without detection."

CHAPTER VIII.

I have no spur

To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'er leaps itself
And falls on the other side.

MACBETH.

IT is not my intention to follow Visconti through all the intrigues by which he sought to establish his power. Suffice it to say, that his schemes for the destruction of the house of La Scala, and the conquest of the Veronese, completely succeeded; and that, instead of sharing the territory equally with the Prince of Padua, as he had engaged to do, he appropriated the whole of it to himself. Francesco Carrara, in

VOL. II.

G

dignant at thus being openly duped, sought the alliance of Venice; but Visconti, notwithstanding his established reputation for bad faith, by means of bribery and specious promises of aggrandisement, contrived not only to frustrate the designs of Carrara, but even made that politic republic an instrument for furthering his ambitious projects. In the summer of 1387, a treaty was concluded betwixt the two parties, for the partition of the territories of Carrara; and in the end he duped the Venetians exactly in the same manner as he before had done the Prince of Padua, by immediately seizing on the conquered territory, thus extending his dominions to the shores of the Adriatic, and completely overturning the balance of power among the Italian states.

While he thus unscrupulously employed both stratagem and violence in the gratification of his ambition, he at the same time sought every opportunity of extending his influence, and paving the road to a throne, by allying himself with the most distinguished families of Europe. In the year 1368, his sister Violet was married to

Lionel, second son of Edward III., and brother of the Black Prince, whose nuptials were celebrated at Milan, with a magnificence which the historians of that city have described at great length. Lionel, however, died shortly after the marriage; and in order to keep up his alliance with royalty, John Galeazzo, shortly after his usurpation, gave his daughter Valentine in marriage to the Duke of Orleans, brother to Charles VI. of France, with a portion, according to Froissart, of a million of francs, and the feudal investiture of Asti, in Piedmont. It was from this ill-fated alliance, which Visconti purchased at so dear a rate, that all the monarchs of France, from Charles VIII. to Francis I., inclusive, claimed the sovereignty of Lombardy; and to establish their right to which so many destructive invasions of Italy were undertaken.

It was on the evening after the meeting of the conspirators, that Visconti was seated in his private apartment, alone with his secretary. The former was busily employed in perusing a packet of letters, which he appeared to have

newly received, while the Dominican stood respectfully behind his chair.

"Well," said Visconti, at length, "we have been successful-my English troops have entered Verona; La Scala has fled, no one knows whither ?"

"To Venice, please your highness, where his name has been inscribed in the book of gold."

Say you so? That is Venetian hospitality, Antonio."

"Do you call it so, my lord?"

"Aye, by the mass, I do ; a wondrous stretch of generosity to a prince without a subject."

"It is indeed an honour of which the greatest princes are proud."

"So I have heard ;-but are you aware that I have signed a treaty with the most high and mighty Council of Ten, for the partition of the swampy lands of Francesco Carrara?"

"You astonish me, my lord; I hear of it now for the first time," replied the secretary, with a look of surprise.

"They have duped me most unmercifully, these close-fisted republicans; but I shall be