under the power of the Venetians. If he refused to accept the offer,
he would have occasion to fear the duke of Savoy, to whom many citizens
were inclined to submit themselves; and either alternative would deprive
him of the sovereignty of Lombardy. Concluding there was less danger in
taking possession of the city than in allowing another to have it, he
determined to accept the proposal of the people of Pavia, trusting he
would be able to satisfy the Milanese, to whom he pointed out the danger
they must have incurred had he not complied with it; for her citizens
would have surrendered themselves to the Venetians or to the duke of
Savoy; so that in either case they would have been deprived of the
government, and therefore they ought to be more willing to have himself
as their neighbor and friend, than a hostile power such as either of the
others, and their enemy. The Milanese were upon this occasion greatly
perplexed, imagining they had discovered the count's ambition, and
the end he had in view; but they thought it desirable to conceal their
fears, for they did not know, if the count were to desert them, to whom
they could have recourse except the Venetians, whose pride and tyranny
they naturally dreaded. They therefore resolved not to break with the
count, but by his assistance remedy the evils with which they were
threatened, hoping that when freed from them they might rescue
themselves from him also; for at that time they were assailed not only
by the Venetians but by the Genoese and the duke of Savoy, in the name
of Charles of Orleans, the son of a sister of Filippo, but whom the
count easily vanquished. Thus their only remaining enemies were the
Venetians, who, with a powerful army, determined to occupy their
territories, and had already taken possession of Lodi and Piacenza,
before which latter place the count encamped; and, after a long siege,
took and pillaged the city. Winter being set in, he led his forces into
quarters, and then withdrew to Cremona, where, during the cold season,
he remained in repose with his wife.