charge of the
governor, Bernardino da Corte, leaving him full instructions as to his
future course of action, and a system of signals by which he could
communicate with friends in the town, and telling him that he would
return with 30,000 Germans before a month was over. Both Ascanio Sforza
and Galeazzo di Sanseverino, it is said, entertained doubts of
Bernardino da Corte's fidelity, and warned the duke not to leave him
without a colleague in this responsible office; but Lodovico did not
share their fears, and trusted implicitly in the loyalty of this
servant, whom he had advanced from a humble position to fill this
responsible post and loaded with favours.

After his children were gone, Lodovico drew up a last deed, by which he
left certain of his lands and houses to his friends in Milan, and made
reparation to others whom he had wronged. Chief among these was the
widowed Duchess Isabella, to whom he gave his own duchy of Bari, in the
kingdom of Naples, with a yearly revenue of 6000 ducats in place of her
dowry. He restored the lands of Angleria and the fortress of Arona to
the Borromeos, gave poor Beatrice's favourite country house of Villa
Nuova to Battista Visconti, and divided his different domains among the
chief representatives of noble Milanese families, in the hope of
securing their allegiance. While he was engaged in this final disposal
of his property, a deputation arrived to inform him that a meeting had
been held that day in the Dominican hall of La Rosa, at which the Bishop
of Como, Landriano, general of the Umiliati, Castiglione, Archbishop of
Bari, and Francesco Bernardino Visconti were chosen to form a
provisional committee of public safety, and that these councillors had
decided to make terms with Trivulzio and admit the French. The duke said
that he still put his trust in the people; upon which Visconti asked him
why, if this were the case, he had sent his sons and his treasure away?
"If you surrender the city to the French," replied the duke, "I will
hold the Castello for the emperor." It was his last word. In vain
Galeazzo urged him to put himself at the head of his loyal servants, and
call upon the citizens of Milan to man the walls against the French and
fight or die with their duke. It was already too late. While they were
still speaking, news reached the Castello that the people had risen in
tumultuous uproar, and that Galeazzo di Sanseverino's stables and the
seneschal Ambrogio Ferrari's house