ore in that of the Venetians, and yet again in that of the Duke of
Milan. His biographer relates with pride that, during this period, he
was three times successful against French troops in Piedmont and
Lombardy. It appears that he made short engagements, and changed his
paymasters according to convenience. But all this time he rose in
personal importance, acquired fresh lordships in the Bergamasque, and
accumulated wealth. He reached the highest point of his prosperity in
1455, when the Republic of St. Mark elected him general-in-chief of
their armies, with the fullest powers, and with a stipend of one hundred
thousand florins. For nearly twenty-one years, until the day of his
death, in 1475, Colleoni held this honorable and lucrative office. In
his will he charged the Signory of Venice that they should never again
commit into the hands of a single captain such unlimited control over
their military resources. It was indeed no slight tribute to Colleoni's
reputation for integrity that the jealous republic, which had signified
its sense of Carmagnola's untrustworthiness by capital punishment,
should have left him so long in the undisturbed disposal of their army.
The standard and the baton of St. Mark were conveyed to Colleoni by two
ambassadors, and presented to him at Brescia on June 24, 1455. Three
years later he made a triumphal entry into Venice, and received the same
ensigns of military authority from the hands of the new doge, Pasquale
Malipiero. On this occasion his staff consisted of some two hundred
officers, splendidly armed, and followed by a train of serving-men.
Noblemen from Bergamo, Brescia, and other cities of the Venetian
territory, swelled the cortege. When they embarked on the lagoons, they
found the water covered with boats and gondolas, bearing the population
of Venice in gala attire to greet the illustrious guest with instruments
of music. Three great galleys of the republic, called bucentaurs, issued
from the crowd of smaller craft. On the first was the doge in his state
robes, attended by the government in office, or the Signoria of St.
Mark. On the second were members of the senate and minor magistrates.
The third carried the ambassadors of foreign powers. Colleoni was
received into the first state galley, and placed by the side of the
doge. The oarsmen soon cleared the space between the land and Venice,
passed the small canals, and swept majestically up the Canalozzo among
the plaudits of the crow