We do not know how Pier Luca died; but the manuscripts we consult speak of his end as miserable. Almost all the Fieschi patrimony in Piedmont fell into the power of the Ferrero, who treated their subjects with a severity which strikingly contrasted with the paternal government of their old masters and led to many seditions and revolts. Urban VIII., moved by the loud complaints of the people, deprived Prince Filiberto, son of Basso, of his entire state, and his son, also named Basso, was only permitted to assume the government through the interposition of Duke Feria and Victor Amedeus II. We have before us a letter of the latter, dated January 23rd, 1632, urging the people of Crevacuore to accept Basso “who is not responsible for the faults of his brother and father.” But the new Basso was no better than the old. Alexander VII. removed him from the government and ordered the destruction of the two fortresses of Masserano and Crevacuore. Here we pause; for the history of these feuds is no longer within the range of our subject. The Doria and imperial faction did not rest while one of the Fieschi conspirators breathed the vital air. Even Giulio Pojano, who commanded the galleys of Gianluigi, fell into snares set for him by that party. He was accused of plotting against the life of Fulvia da Coreggio, wife of Count Lodovico Mirandola, arrested by her orders and strangled in prison. CHAPTER XVI. JACOPO BONFADIO. Bonfadio executed in prison and his body burned--Errors in regard to the year of his death--The causes of his arrest and punishment--He was not guilty of the vices ascribed to him--The true cause of his ruin was his Annals--The pretence for his condemnation was his Protestant opinions. A PAINFUL episode of literary history is closely connected with the Fieschi conspiracy, and it has not yet been fully described. If that Bonfadio, with whose name the reader of these pages has grown familiar, the Bonfadio who was condemned for infamous crimes to an infamous punishment, was indeed an innocent man, the fact is one of great importance. We are able to add something to the history of this foreign[50] writer of Ligurian story whose fate illustrates that maxim which affirms:--The causes of great events are always imperfectly known; because those who are close at hand know only so much as persons whose interests require concealment of the truth choose to tell; and those who are distant interpret facts by passion, interest, caprice or previously formed opinions.