pirators against Piero
de' Medici--Niccolo Fedini discloses to Piero the plots of his enemies.

While Florence and Italy were in this condition, Louis XI. of France
was involved in very serious troubles with his barons, who, with the
assistance of Francis, duke of Brittany, and Charles, duke of Burgundy,
were in arms against him. This attack was so serious, that he was unable
to render further assistance to John of Anjou in his enterprise against
Genoa and Naples; and, standing in need of all the forces he could
raise, he gave over Savona (which still remained in the power of the
French) to the duke of Milan, and also intimated, that if he wished,
he had his permission to undertake the conquest of Genoa. Francesco
accepted the proposal, and with the influence afforded by the king's
friendship, and the assistance of the Adorni, he became lord of Genoa.
In acknowledgment of this benefit, he sent fifteen hundred horse into
France for the king's service, under the command of Galeazzo, his eldest
son. Thus Ferrando of Aragon and Francesco Sforza became, the latter,
duke of Lombardy and prince of Genoa, and the former, sovereign of the
whole kingdom of Naples. Their families being allied by marriage, they
thought they might so confirm their power as to secure to themselves its
enjoyment during life, and at their deaths, its unencumbered reversion
to their heirs. To attain this end, they considered it necessary that
the king should remove all ground of apprehension from those barons who
had offended him in the war of John of Anjou, and that the duke should
extirpate the adherents of the Bracceschi, the natural enemies of
his family, who, under Jacopo Piccinino, had attained the highest
reputation. The latter was now the first general in Italy, and
possessing no territory, he naturally excited the apprehension of all
who had dominions, and especially of the duke, who, conscious of what
he had himself done, thought he could neither enjoy his own estate in
safety, nor leave them with any degree of security to his son during
Jacopo's lifetime. The king, therefore, strenuously endeavored to come
to terms with his barons, and using his utmost ingenuity to secure them,
succeeded in his object; for they perceived their ruin to be inevitable
if they continued in war with their sovereign, though from submission
and confidence in him, they would still have reason for apprehension.
Mankind are always most eager to avoid a certain evil; and