THE NIGHT OF THE SECOND OF JANUARY.
Measures taken by the Count--Occupation of the gate of the Archi
and of San Tommaso--Death of Gianettino Doria--Fieschi did not seek
the death of prince Doria--Schemes of Paolo Lavagna--Taking of the
arsenal--Fall and death of Gianluigi--Flight of Andrea Doria to
Masone--The place where Gianluigi was drowned--The several arsenals of
Genoa--The death of Count Fieschi deemed a misfortune by the Italians.
HALTING for a moment at the foot of the hill, near the ancient houses
of the Frangipani, the count sent his brother Cornelio to capture
and hold the gate of the Archi in order to secure a way of retreat
to his castles in case the enterprise should fail. He directed his
brothers Ottobuono and Gerolamo, who had just returned from the court
of France, to hold themselves and their men in readiness to attack
the gate of San Tommaso at a preconcerted signal. The capture of
that strong place being an affair of moment, Calcagno was ordered to
support the attacking party with the main body of the troops. These
were the movements in the city. As for the harbour, Verrina had orders
to work his galley outside of the Mandraccio and up to the gates of
the arsenal, thus laying siege to the ships of Doria. Then Tommaso
Assereto, who, as an officer under Andrea, had the countersigns, was
to enter the arsenal, by fraud or force, on the land side. The great
stress of the enterprise lay in taking these ships of Doria, because
they constituted the emperor’s naval force and were able to command the
Mediterranean. Therefore, to make sure work at this point, the count
sent orders to Scipione Borgognino, one of his vassals and a brave
soldier, to embark the flower of the troops upon some floats which had
been prepared and to storm the arsenal on the sea side, and having
gained the inside to open the gates unless Assereto had already forced
them.
The count reserved to himself no particular command, but was at liberty
to fly to the point of greatest need. He entered the city through the
gates of St. Andrea, passed down the streets of Prione and San Donato,
gained the piazza of Salvaghi and advancing to the bridge of Cattanei,
now destroyed, waited near Marinella until Verrina should inform him
with a discharge from a bombard that the attack on the arsenal was
began.
He intended, having occupied the arsenal and mounted crews on the
galleys of Doria, to unite the various corps distributed through the
city and move to the assault of the Doge’s palace, the taking of
which would crown the enterprise with complete success. He employed a
subtle artifice to secure the death of Gianettino. It was reasonably
apprehended that the young admiral, awakened by the din which would
necessarily be made in the harbour and arsenal, would take refuge in
a galley which always rode at anchor under the prince’s palace. To
exclude this mode of flight, a large number of floats heavily laden
were placed, some days before, in front of this ship so as to render it
impossible to move her. Finally, it was agreed and ordered that the cry
used to arouse the plebeians and win their stout arms to the cause of
Fieschi should be:--“_The people and liberty_.”
This was the general plan of insurrection. At first every movement was
successful. Cornelio occupied the gate of the Archi with but little
bloodshed; but the fortress of San Tommaso proved a serious obstacle
to the conspirators. Captain Sebastiano Lercaro and his brother were
in command there. Both had the reputation of being valiant soldiers,
and they were thoroughly devoted to the Dorias to whom they owed their
rank in the permanent militia. As soon as they saw a large body of men
moving against them and heard the air ring with the name of Fieschi,
they prepared for a vigorous defence.
Captain Lercaro, who, according to rumour, had accepted a commission
to assassinate Fieschi, knew well that his own life and that of
his masters’ depended upon a successful resistance, and he exerted
himself with such spirit and prowess that he several times repulsed
the assailants with serious loss. But Gerolamo and Ottobuono returned
to the assault with undiminished courage, and Calcagno came to their
succour with reinforcements. The conflict now became too unequal. Many
of the soldiers of the government were killed and wounded, others threw
down their arms, while some turned their swords against those of their
companions who still faced the enemy.
Lercaro, seeing himself well-nigh abandoned and his brother stretched
at his feet by a blow from a halberd, surrendered to the Fieschi.
Manfredo Centurione, Vincenzo Promontorio, Vaccari and some other
officers and soldiers followed his example.
The palace of Prince Andrea stood within a stone’s throw of the gate of
San Tommaso which the Fieschi had now occupied. Gianettino, awakened
by the din of arms and fearing that there was a mutiny on his galleys,
determined to go immediately to the arsenal. His consort in vain urged
him with tears not to set foot outside the palace, as though she too
had sad presage of her destiny. In vain Andrea united his prayers to
those of his wife. “This, said the prince, is not a mutiny or quarrel
among our crews. It is the roar of battle.” A relentless destiny drew
the young admiral on to his fate. Still believing that it was some
disturbance among his own crews, he set forth for San Tommaso to obtain
troops to quell the disorder. He had only a page as an escort. The
flicker of his own lamp revealed him to his enemies, and rejoicing at
their good fortune they permitted him to approach and fall into their
net. Arriving at the walls, he demanded in his usual imperious tone
that the door be opened. At that moment, pierced by many pikes, he
fell in a pool of his own blood. It is now known that the first and
fatal blow was dealt by Agostino Bigelotti da Barga, a soldier of the
government.
Gerolamo Fieschi now began to fortify his position. Gianettino, the
expected tyrant of Genoa, being dead, it was no longer desirable to
assail the Doria palace. The decrepit Andrea was not obnoxious to their
rage. He was in error or spoke falsely who wrote that Fieschi desired
the death of Prince Doria that he might plunder the splendid carvings,
sculptures and furniture of the Doria palace. The government itself by
the mouth of the lawyers of Padua, affirmed that Fieschi did not wish
to assault that house or to vent his wrath against the prince, towards
whom he felt no personal grudge. This is the most splendid testimony
that Gianluigi did not aspire to power but to liberate the Republic.
And if those who undertook to transmit to posterity the memory of
these events had studied the official documents, they could not have
distorted history by such grave errors. It is noteworthy, too, that the
name of France was not uttered on that fatal night.
Count Gerolamo left his brother Ottobuono to guard the gates and
marched through the principal streets to arouse the people for the
national cause. The word liberty, rung in the ears of people but
yesterday despoiled of rights which they had enjoyed for centuries,
produced a marvellous effect in the deep midnight silence. New crowds
crying, “_Gatto and liberty_” gathered around the Fieschi standard.
The very women who, when the first uproar called their husbands and
brothers into the streets, clung to them with tears, when they heard
the name of Fieschi hushed their sobs and uttered cries of joy. Such
was the power of that name. The night was now dark; the confusion and
the terror became indescribable. The shouts of the populace and the
blare of the trumpets filled the old nobles with mortal dismay, and
closing their massive doors they did not venture to set foot in the
streets.
Suarez Figuerroa, the minister of Cæsar, who had foreseen the
conspiracy, though he had not believed the outbreak so near, was seized
with a mortal fright, and wandered half insane through the streets in
search of a way of escape from the city. Paolo Lasagna encountered him
and dissipated his personal fears by assuring him that however the
conflict might end, the character which the minister of Cæsar bore
would perfectly protect him from harm, and conducted him to the ducal
palace. Lasagna, though he was not opposed, being a new noble, to the
movement on foot, yet being a follower of the Adorni party, he thought
the occasion propitious for the restoration of his friends to power.
Therefore collecting some of his political sympathisers, he conferred
with them, and they decided to wait until the balance should incline
in favour of one or other of the contending parties. If the attempt of
the Fieschi should be crushed, they would do nothing. But if it should
triumph, then they would unite with the Spinola party and rouse the
city with the cry of Barnaba Adorno. For the present, they would watch
the course of the storm and see whom it destroyed.
As we have said, the Ducal office was at that time vacant, and
Nicolò Franco was administering the government. Besides Lasagna and
Figuerroa, there were collected about him in the palace Cardinal
Gerolamo Doria and Prince Adamo Centurione who had taken refuge there
at the first sounds of revolution. On receiving intelligence of the
assault on the gate of San Tommaso, they sent to reinforce it Bonifacio
Lomellini, Cristoforo Pallavicini and Antonio Calvi with fifty men
of the Ducal guard. The reinforcement had hardly reached the street
Fossatello when it was surrounded and badly handled. The survivors
with difficulty gained the Centurione palace and took shelter there.
Francesco Grimaldi, Domenico Doria and some other nobles had taken
refuge in this palace. They reproached the fugitive soldiers with their
cowardice and offered to lead them against the enemy. Though but few in
number they advanced boldly against the revolutionists at San Tommaso;
but Calcagno made a vigorous sortie and routed them, killing some and
capturing others.
The count’s enterprise was moving with full sails. Tommaso Assereto,
who was appointed to carry the arsenal by a _coup de main_, arrived
at the door and giving the countersign was about to enter without
bloodshed, when his enthusiastic men sprang from under cover to enter
with him and the garrison rushing to arms repulsed them with serious
loss. The first attempt having failed, they went to the count who was
awaiting the result of the attack in the street of Maruffi near the
piazza San Pancrazio. He was fretting wrathfully because his ears
had not yet been saluted by the bombard as arranged with Verrina.
At the news of the repulse, he broke into imprecations upon their
cowardice, and ordered Scipione Borgognino to embark at once on the
floats and attack the arsenal by sea, while he in person led the attack
by land. To assail a strong fortress with boats is a very perilous
undertaking and it would not have been attempted but for the fierce
ardour of Borgognino who, though not seconded by the galley of Verrina,
determined to risk the assault.
Unfortunately the galley of Verrina was stationed in that part of the
port which is called the Mandraccio, and when he attempted to work her
towards the arsenal, she struck full on a sand bank under water, and
held so firmly that their utmost efforts could not get her afloat.
This was the cause of Verrina’s unexpected delay. At length, however,
by superhuman exertion and enthusiasm they succeeded in lifting her
off the bar and, with three other frigates, which had that same night
arrived in port (as we read in the report of the Republic to Ceva
Doria) moved forward to the assistance of Borgognino. The latter
had overcome every resistance and driven the defenders from every
defensible part of the works, and the count, hearing the roar of the
battle within, assailed the gates at the moment Borgognino, beating
down all opposition, rushed into the arsenal and ran to open it to his
leader.
A more complete success could not have been hoped for by the
conspirators. Of all their attacks that of Assereto only had failed,
and that chiefly because the disaster of the galley had prevented a
simultaneous assault by sea and land.
The night was dismal; the sea stormy; the cries of the Doria slaves,
the clanking of their chains and the disorder of the assailants
rendered the arsenal a scene of indescribable confusion. The count,
seeing the necessity of preventing revolt among the galley slaves
who were breaking their chains, with his natural audacity threw
himself on board the galley in which the greatest disorder reigned,
manned it with his own men and gave the command of it to some of his
most trusted followers. Order was soon restored and he resolved to
go into the city. He attempted to pass from the _Capitana_ to the
_Padrona_ which was moored by the side of the former. But the shock
of a float suddenly striking against them drove the vessels apart and
the frail and imperfectly fastened bridge which connected them fell,
carrying him with it down into the sea. With him fell the hopes of the
revolutionists. Though the count was an able swimmer, he could not save
himself on account of being encumbered with arms, and in the darkness
and confusion no aid was rendered him.
This is the history of his death according to the writers of the time,
with the addition that the count and Gianettino perished in the same
moment. But as the water in the arsenal was not deep and the count’s
strength and skill as a swimmer must have enabled him to save himself
in spite of his armour, we are inclined to adopt the opinion of
Campanaceo that he struck his temples against the bridge in falling and
either fell senseless into the waves, or was so weakened by the blow as
to be unable to make any exertion. In fact, when the corpse was taken
from the water the head was found to have suffered a severe contusion.
Meanwhile, Prince Doria seeing that Gianettino did not return and
hearing the cries and tumult among the galleys, despatched messenger
after messenger to learn the occasion of the unwonted uproar. Captain
Luigi Giulia at length brought him word that the Fieschi were in arms
and the city ringing with their name. The old admiral fumed with
vexation that his decrepitude forbade him to mingle in the fray. He
was induced by the tears of Princess Peretta and the entreaties of his
servants to send his wife into the adjacent convent of the _Canonici
Regolari di San Teodoro_ and the widow of Gianettino with her children
into the monastery of Gesu and Maria. Then mounting on horseback,
escorted by Giulia, Count Filippino and four servants, he rode to
Sestri whence he went upon a small oared bark to Voltri, and thence
sent information of the revolution to the duke of Florence and Gonzaga
in Milan, who were the only zealous partisans of the imperial cause in
Italy. He was then placed in a palanquin and carried to the castle of
Masone, a feud of Adamo Centurione, fifteen miles distant from Genoa in
the heights of the mountains. In this painful journey, he read upon the
faces of his attendants the fate of Gianettino and wept bitter tears,
over it, but his grief was partly soothed by the hope of immolating
the whole Fieschi family to his terrible vengeance.
The first part of this conspiracy thus ended in a great misfortune;
but it saved the Republic by Gianettino’s death. There can be no doubt
that, had he survived he would have gratified his own lust of dominion
and fulfilled the wishes of Cæsar, who desired to divide Italy into
principalities subject to himself and founded on the ruins of the
republics averse to his empire.
The body of Gianettino was buried in the subterranean chapel of San
Matteo which is now adorned with the monument of Andrea, a beautiful
work of Montorsoli.
A brief episode will be permitted us here on the place in the harbour
where Gianluigi was drowned. It is necessary to confute the error of
those who tell us it occurred in the station of Mandraccio. The mistake
arose from the confusion of various arsenals whose true position has
been lost in the great changes wrought by time. The first arsenal of
which we shall speak was nothing more than a small basin near the
piazza Molo, protected in 1276 by a strip of land covered with heavy
stones and palissades. Then galleys were built there. At an earlier
period ships were constructed along the Borgo di Pre, then outside the
walls, particularly in front of the commandery of St. John and near the
basin of St. Limbania.
It is difficult to comprehend how the Genoese, without any tolerable
dockyards, were able in so short a time to put to sea the memorable
fleets which sailed for Palestine, and the two sent against Pisa in
1120 and 1126. The first Pisan expedition numbered eighty galleys, four
large ships, thirty-five gatti, twenty-eight calabi and other small
craft manned by twenty-two thousand combatants; and the second counted
eighty triremes and forty-three boats. We have credible testimony that
the Genoese equipped, in seven years, six hundred and twenty-seven
triremes; and in 1295, in less than a month, they put to sea two
hundred galleys and other ships of which one hundred and five were
entirely new, and embarked on them thirty-five thousand warriors, eight
thousand of whom were dressed in silk and purple. The founder of the
arsenal of which we speak was a certain Oliverio a cistercense monk of
the Badia of St. Andrea in Sestri. He constructed two roads on that
strip of land, of which we have made mention, leading down to the gate
of the Molo, where there was already a bridge of large stones on which
rose a light-house for the convenience of mariners. In the same year,
Marin Boccanegra raised a high wall around the Borgo di Molo which was
then outside of the piazza of that name. This wall ran from the church
of Our Lady of Grace along the shore to the tower of the light-house,
then, turning, it passed behind San Marco and in front of Bordigotto
famous in popular legends for its fountain of blood and here Boccanegra
excavated the little port which was called Mandraccio. Here was moored
the galley of Fieschi, and the shallowness of the water rendered it
difficult to work her out into the harbour. We find in fact that
though the excavations of Boccanegra are described as very deep, yet
that there was not sufficient water in any part of the Mandraccio to
float heavy galleys. Some years after the attempt of Fieschi, that is
in 1575, that part of the port which lies between the Ponte Cattanei
and the little mole of Mandraccio then called the _Goletta_ was dried
under the direction of the Sicilian engineer Anastasio, and the rocks
lying at the bottom of it were broken up and excavated for the distance
of twenty palms.
To enlarge this arsenal and protect it from the fury of the waves,
Boccanegra commanded, in 1283 the colossal structure of the Molo
extending it one hundred and fifteen cubits into the sea. On the
opposite side of the arsenal, rose the Ponte Cattanei, called by the
name of the family who built it, and there was a passage by an easy
stair to the Ponte di Mercanzia which led to the Portofranco and the
Custom House. The latter occupied the ground floor of the bank of St.
George, a palace which was adorned in 1262 with some marbles taken from
the palace of the Venitians in Constantinople. To the right of the bank
stood, and still stands, the Ponte Reale and next it those of Spinola,
Legna and Calvi. In the vicinity of this last, the third arsenal was
begun in the period of which we write, and behind it a fourth was
afterwards constructed.
The third arsenal, situated between the church of S. Fede and S.
Antonio, was built in 1282 and ten thousand marks of the booty taken in
Pisa in 1215 were appropriated for its construction. It was afterwards
doubled in size and half of it was appropriated to the wine trade and
the collection of duties on the same. The other part was used as a
station for galleys.
Gianluigi on the night of the 2nd of January, passed from the street
of Maruffi by way of Sottoripa to that part of the arsenal which was
used for the trade in wine, and the gate of that part was opened by
his men. From this gate he passed into the back part of the arsenal,
where the Doria galleys lay, and there he was drowned and buried in the
muddy bottom of the dock. He could not have met his fate in the fourth
arsenal, which is the one existing in our day, because it was then
unoccupied. Though begun in 1457 the works had fallen into ruin from
the want of skill in the builders, and, they were not reconstructed
until 1596.
The news of Fieschi’s death was received by the liberal spirits of
Italy as a national misfortune. Matteo Bandello a month after the event
wrote:--“He was a young man of great heart and excellent speech; his
literary studies and the instructions of the learned and virtuous Paolo
Panza had given him a maturity of judgment wonderful for his years.
There is no learned man of Italy or France who had not commended him
for his rare virtues, his intellectual gifts and the greatness of soul
which led him though so young to combine everything with admirable
prudence for freeing his country from the Spanish yoke.”[46]
Nor ought we to omit that opinion which, according to the same author,
was expressed by Catando d’Arimini who lived on intimate terms with
the count. Catando said:--“In a conference held at Montebrano by the
Fregosi, you, my masters, justly commended Gian Aloise Fieschi, for he
truly deserved your praise. But I think that the most of you honoured
his memory with your good opinion on the basis of the current estimate
of his great virtues and singular mental accomplishments. But if you
had known him as familiarly as I, the day would be too short to express
your admiration. If I wished to recount to you all his merits, it would
be easy to begin but impossible to finish my discourse. I shall omit
then his birth which opened for him the paths to honour, his boyhood
which impressed all the Genoese with boundless expectation of his
future, the prematurely ripened intelligence which he used in winning
the love of the people and the good will of the nobility, so that the
people adored him and the nobles admired and esteemed him. I forbear to
enlarge on the repute which he had among the peasants of the Eastern
Riviera and in the mountains towards Parma and Piacenza; on the fact
that his vassals never complained of the slightest injustice, and that
he was so liberal when they were in want that they adored him as a
Providence, and that his neighbours had the highest respect for his
wisdom. I pass by his affection for his brothers whom he wished to be
honoured as himself, that he loved and aided his friends with fraternal
warmth and avenged injuries with a prompt hand.” The orator concluded
by saying that the most distinguished proof of Fieschi’s greatness was
that he attempted great enterprises. We shall not dwell on the people’s
grief over the death of Gianluigi. It kept alive his memory in national
songs and mariner’s hymns, which are so full of patriotic fervour that
they deserve to be collected and preserved. To justify this opinion,
we give two stanzas of a popular song preserved in a codex of Beriana
the subject of which is the death of the count, the sorrow felt by the
Genoese at his loss and their high estimate of his merits.
E se l’alto e magnanimo desìre
La fallace fortuna fece vano,
Non vi si può imputar, non si può dire
Che v’abbi offeso alcun valore umano;
Che per voler nel mondo voi ferire
Non era in terra così ardita mano:
Ma un elemento solo ebbe per sorte
Di farsene sepolcro e darvi morte.
A gran pianto e dolor restiamo noi
Che seguitiam vostre vestigie in terra:
Perchè rimasti siamo senza voi
Che padre erate agli nomini di guerra,
Come se senza i chiari raggi suoi
Lasciasse il sole in tenebre la terra;
Chi sarà senza voi mai piu giocondo?
Spento il vostro valor fu oscuro il mondo.