Lack of space prevents me from giving the agreement in full. It is very curious. Among other provisions is one forbidding the condottiero to present, for the roll call, the same charger or man ‘more than once or under more than one lance,’ a clause which gives an idea of the usual methods of cheating. All unimportant prisoners were their property as part of the booty; the important objects and persons, ‘cities, lands, fortresses and their munitions, ruling princes and their brothers or sons, and rebels and traitors,’ were to be handed over to Venice; but other condottieri and military commanders, if taken, were to be paid for by the Venetian government, if it chose to pay half their ransoms. At the end of the campaign Gattamelata and his friend received in ‘noble and gentle fee’ the castle and lands of Valmarino, on condition that the population should continue to buy its salt from the Venetian Republic, and that the two feudal holders should pay the Republic a yearly tribute of ten pounds of wax at the feast of Saint Mark. Gattamelata bought out his friend’s share, and was inscribed in the Golden Book. He and Sforza fought together against Piccinino and amongst other things took back Verona. [Sidenote: _1439. Verona retaken by the Venetians, Giovanni Contarini; Sala delle Quattro Porte, ducal palace._] Gattamelata died of apoplexy not long after the end of that campaign, and was magnificently buried, in the presence of the Doge and the Signory. A picture representing his obsequies was painted by Mantegna, but his biographer, Marchese Eroli, writing in 1876, had not learned where it was, if it still existed, nor can I obtain any information on the subject. The great Francesco Sforza was also during some time in the service of the Republic, but left it to marry Bianca Visconti with the prospect of succeeding to the Duchy, and he fought against Venice as bravely as he had lately fought under her standard. War was purely a matter of business with the condottieri, and so long as they fulfilled the conditions of each successive contract they undertook, no one ever blamed them for changing sides as often as was profitable. It was not even proper or customary to poison them for it, and in an age when political murder was as common as mere political calumny is now, the acts of Filippo-Maria Visconti were really looked on with disapproval by his fellow-scoundrels in power. It was considered that he went too far. [Sidenote: _Rom. iv. 196._] [Sidenote: _Battle of Lake Garda, Tintorettto; ceiling, Hall of Great Council._]