ther provoking, not yet provoked, unless
at our command, shall you break into open warfare with our enemies.
Free jurisdiction and lordship over each one of our soldiers, except
in cases of treason, we hereby commit to you.'

After the ceremony of his reception, Colleoni was conducted with
no less pomp to his lodgings, and the next ten days were spent in
festivities of all sorts.

The commandership-in-chief of the Venetian forces was perhaps the
highest military post in Italy. It placed Colleoni on the pinnacle
of his profession, and made his camp the favourite school of young
soldiers. Among his pupils or lieutenants we read of Ercole d'Este,
the future Duke of Ferrara; Alessandro Sforza, lord of Pesaro;
Boniface, Marquis of Montferrat; Cicco and Pino Ordelaffi, princes
of Forli; Astorre Manfredi, the lord of Faenza; three Counts of
Mirandola; two princes of Carpi; Deifobo, the Count of Anguillara;
Giovanni Antonio Caldora, lord of Jesi in the March; and many others
of less name. Honours came thick upon him. When one of the many
ineffectual leagues against the infidel was formed in 1468, during the
pontificate of Paul II., he was named Captain-General for the Crusade.
Pius II. designed him for the leader of the expedition he had planned
against the impious and savage despot, Sigismondo Malatesta. King Rene
of Anjou, by special patent, authorised him to bear his name and
arms, and made him a member of his family. The Duke of Burgundy, by
a similar heraldic fiction, conferred upon him his name and armorial
bearings. This will explain why Colleoni is often styled 'di Andegavia
e Borgogna.' In the case of Rene, the honour was but a barren show.
But the patent of Charles the Bold had more significance. In 1473 he
entertained the project of employing the great Italian General against
his Swiss foes; nor does it seem reasonable to reject a statement made
by Colleoni's biographer, to the effect that a secret compact had been
drawn up between him and the Duke of Burgundy, for the conquest and
partition of the Duchy of Milan. The Venetians, in whose service
Colleoni still remained, when they became aware of this project, met
it with peaceful but irresistible opposition.

Colleoni had been engaged continually since his earliest boyhood in
the trade of war. It was not therefore possible that he should have
gained a great degree of literary culture. Yet the fashion of the
times made it necessary that a man in his position should