head of the state, he proposes those questions or subjects which have
to be considered and determined by the magistrates and the councils. In
that city are many noble families so powerful, that they are with great
difficulty induced to submit to the authority of the law. Of these,
the most powerful are the Fregosa and the Adorna, from whom arise the
dissensions of the city, and the impotence of her civil regulations; for
the possession of this high office being contested by means inadmissible
in well-regulated communities, and most commonly with arms in their
hands, it always occurs that one party is oppressed and the other
triumphant; and sometimes those who fail in the pursuit have recourse to
the arms of strangers, and the country they are not allowed to rule they
subject to foreign authority. Hence it happens, that those who govern in
Lombardy most commonly command in Genoa, as occurred at the time Alfonso
of Aragon was made prisoner. Among the leading Genoese who had been
instrumental in subjecting the republic to Filippo, was Francesco
Spinola, who, soon after he had reduced his country to bondage, as
always happens in such cases, became suspected by the duke. Indignant at
this, he withdrew to a sort of voluntary exile at Gaeta, and being
there when the naval expedition was in preparation, and having conducted
himself with great bravery in the action, he thought he had again
merited so much of the duke's confidence as would obtain for him
permission to remain undisturbed at Genoa. But the duke still retained
his suspicions; for he could not believe that a vacillating defender of
his own country's liberty would be faithful to himself; and Francesco
Spinola resolved again to try his fortune, and if possible restore
freedom to his country, and honorable safety for himself; for he was
there was no probability of regaining the forfeited affection of
his fellow-citizens, but by resolving at his own peril to remedy the
misfortunes which he had been so instrumental in producing. Finding the
indignation against the duke universal, on account of the liberation