The Republic having broken with France, was prostrated under the power of Spain and Doria. The citizens were profoundly indignant at this double servitude. They were prohibited by law, under the severest penalties, from proposing or advocating any change in the new constitution of the Republic; so that many, before the attempt of Fieschi, ardently wished to throw off the yoke and place the country once more under the protection of France. In 1534, Granara and Corsanico went to Marseilles followed by many of the people with the intention of preparing a revolution. The enterprise became known by Doria, and Granara lost his head. Corsanico was captured by Doria, and, without the least form of condemnation, hurled into the sea. A few months later, Tomaso Sauli who had attempted a similar conspiracy with Cardinal di Agramonte, in Bologna, was condemned and quartered. The exiles excelled all others in their devotion to liberty; and in 1536, led by Cæsar Fregoso and Cagnino Gonzaga, with ten thousand foot and eight hundred horse, they marched to attack Genoa. This is not the place to relate how after a few skirmishes they broke up their camp; it is only to our purpose to add that hundreds of citizens who were suspected of complicity with the exiles lost their heads, while their houses were levelled with the earth. Not only in Genoa, but throughout Liguria these conspiracies abounded; especially in Chiavari, where the revolt of Fregoso, of which Stradiotto was the leader, had its origin. Blood whenever it was shed, far from quenching the thirst for liberty, begot new advocates for the old supremacy of the people. Soon after, that is in 1539, a pious priest named Valerio Zuccarello, beloved by the people, was accused of revolutionary sympathies and leanings to France. He was subjected to an inquisition and lost his head on the scaffold. The nobility struggled to maintain its power; the people to regain the inheritance of which they had been defrauded. The Republic was passing through such pains as these when Gianluigi Fieschi listened to her complaints and resolved to avenge them. CHAPTER IV. GIANLUIGI FIESCHI. Maria della Rovere and her children.--The natural gifts of Gianluigi.--Andrea Doria prevents his marriage with the daughter of Prince Centurione.--Gianluigi’s first quarrels with Gianettino Doria.--Naval battle of Giralatte and capture of the corsair Torghud Rais--Count Fieschi espouses Eleonora of the Princes of Cybo--The hill of Carignano in the early part of the sixteenth century--Sumptousness of the Fieschi palace--Gianluigi, Pansa and other distinguished men--Female writers--Eleonora Fieschi and her rhymes.