Giovanni Maria, too, is famed for his dogs, which were no
longer, however, used for hunting but for tearing human bodies. Tradition has
preserved their names, like those of the bears of Emperor Valentinian I. In
May, 1409, when war was going on, and the starving populace cried to him in the
streets, Pace! Pace! he let loose his mercenaries upon them, and 200
lives were sacrificed; under penalty of the gallows it was forbidden to utter
the words pace and guerra, and the priests were ordered, instead of dona
nobis pacem, to say tranquillitatem! At last a band of conspirators
took advantage of the moment when Facino Cane, the chief Condotierre of the
insane ruler, lay in at Pavia, and cut down Giovanni Maria in the church of San
Gottardo at Milan; the dying Facino on the same day made his officers swear to
stand by the heir Filippo Maria, whom he himself urged his wife to take for a
second husband. His wife, Beatrice di Tenda, followed his advice. We shall have
occasion to speak of Filippo Maria later on.
And in times like these Cola di Rienzi was dreaming of
founding on the rickety enthusiasm of the corrupt population of Rome a new
State which was to comprise all Italy. By the side of rulers such as those whom
we have described, he seems no better than a poor deluded fool.
