Piacenza was never restored to the Farnese in spite of that spirited discourse which Casa wrote to Cæsar and which we find in his works. The Pope in full concistory asked an account from the emperor of the assassination of his son and the seizure of Piacenza, and demanded the punishment of Gonzaga. But the emperor pleased with his success, paid no attention either to the threats of the Pope or the appeals of his son-in-law and Margaret. Gonzaga was not even content with Piacenza but attempted to grasp Parma also. He moved an army against it, but the valour of Camillo Orsino rendered his efforts fruitless. To secure his grandson against Spanish treachery, Paul kept him near his own person in Rome, until Ottavio, weary of living in privacy put himself into the power of the ministers of Charles and returned to Parma. The old pontiff, pricked to the heart by the death of his son and the fruitlessness of his appeals to other governments against Spain, soon ended his days in bitterness and sorrow (1549). Though the assassins of Farnese obtained rewards from the emperor they were long the objects of atrocious persecutions from Rome. Anguissola was created governor of Como; but he sought refuge from many assassins who dodged his steps in the Pliniana villa which he had constructed. Beleseur, French ambassador, having encountered him in the Grisons tried to pierce him in the very palace of the bishop with the dagger of papal vengance. A certain Rinaldo Rondinello, of the mountains of Cesena, long followed him in the mantle of a friar; and when this assassin was punished, many others rose up to take his place, until Anguissola seeing himself the object of universal scorn and the mark of every stiletto terminated his miserable life in sorrow and remorse. Gerolamo Pallavicini who with his brother Alessando and others was an accomplice in that crime was making the campaign in Flanders in 1552, in company with his relatives. Eight masked men one day assailed him, killed all his relatives and left him stretched upon the earth with five severe wounds. However, he recovered and retired to his castle of Castiglione di Lodi, which he had obtained from the Fieschi. He made a vow to marry the first woman whom he should meet. Fate was propitious and Gerolamina Virotelli, the daughter of a mountaineer and a woman of more than womanly prudence, made the evening of his life cheerful. Count Landi died in remorse and bequeathed a rich legacy to the heir of the murdered Farnese Gonzaga, too, died miserably. Some assassins, Corsican soldiers of Ottavio Farnese, several times attempted to kill him; but it was reserved for the Genoese to avenge on him the death of the Fieschi and Farnese, and his other crimes. Tommaso Marini and Ottobuono Giustiniani obtained a decree from Charles, that Gonzaga be subjected to an examination for the robberies with which he was charged. The emperor acquitted him, but removed him from the