On another occasion, two of these great lords and their followers met one another and entered into conversation. While they were talking, two of their servants quarrelled. One of them picked up a little dog and threw it at the other. The dog missed the man at whom it was thrown and hit his lord instead. The great man was furious. He refused to accept any apology, and a quarrel broke out between the two friends which lasted many a day and cost many a life. [Illustration: BAKING OVEN, ALERIA. _Page 11._] The rule of the Genoese lasted for 400 years, during which time the people were fined, exiled, and ill-treated in many ways. Most of the great names in Corsican history are the names of the men who, from time to time, called the people to arms, and tried to drive the oppressors away. One of the most famous of these was a man called Sampiero. He was born in 1497 and died in 1567, so that his life was lived during the time that Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary and Elizabeth sat upon the English throne. Many are the stories that are told of Sampiero that preserve for us the memories of his great courage and strength. When at Rome, a rival defied him to fight a wild bull. He accepted the challenge, tackled the bull, and killed it. Sampiero entered the French army, and at the siege of a certain town he, with the aid of fifty Italians, put 500 Spanish knights to flight. About the year 1553 he went to Corsica, and, assisted by the soldiers of France and the ships of Turkey, he attempted to drive the Genoese from the island. Six years later France made peace with Genoa, and took away her troops, but the Corsicans had no idea of surrendering, and Sampiero remained their leader. As he made little headway against the foe, he went to Constantinople and other places on the Continent to get foreign friends to aid him. While he was absent at Constantinople, he left his wife Vanina and his younger son at Marseilles. During his absence a priest, a pretended friend, persuaded Vanina that it would be well for her to go to Genoa. He told her that if she would surrender herself to the Genoese her husband would be pardoned, and the lands that had been taken away from him would be restored. She listened eagerly, agreed to the proposal, and set sail for Genoa. But some of Sampiero’s friends heard of this, pursued her, caught her, and managed to prevent her from surrendering to their violently hated foe. When Sampiero came home and heard that his wife had actually tried to make terms for him with the Genoese, his anger knew no bounds. He told her to prepare for instant death, and ordered her black slaves to strangle her. She pleaded for mercy, but he would not listen. Then she asked that if she had to die she might die by his hands, and not by the hands of slaves. He begged her pardon for the awful punishment he was about to inflict, and then straightway killed her. In the end he paid for this cruel deed with