that day a mortal hatred had divided the two families. This fact alone renders the story of a plot with Fregoso highly improbable. Bonfadio also accuses Fieschi of having attempted to betray the city to Pietro Strozzi, which, he says, would have been done, if Bernardino di Mendozza had not arrived with a strong body of _Bisogni_, in good time to overthrow the conspiracy. Some add that the count sent one Sacco, to Strozzi to instigate him to attack Genoa and to act as a guide. The circumstance deserves investigation. In August, 1544, when the emperor had marched into France, Pietro Strozzi collected an army at Mirandola, with the design of attacking the territories of Milan in concert with Enghein. Aided by Pierluigi Farnese, he had already crossed the Po, and entered the province of Piacenza, where he lay encamped on the slopes of the Ligurian mountains, when, being assailed by Ridolfo Baglione and imperial troops sent from Naples, he was forced to fall back to Serravalle, on the banks of the Scrivia. Here he was overtaken by the prince of Salerno, and forced to accept battle. The fight was at first favourable to Strozzi, but in the end he suffered defeat. There were few killed, because the Italians recognized their brotherhood on the field of battle, threw down their arms and embraced each other. Strozzi took shelter with the remnant of his army in the territory of the Republic. The Fieschi, fearing the rage of a conquered Strozzi, and perhaps an assault upon Montobbio, fled into the city, and remained there until Strozzi evacuated his camp in the Apennines. This shows how completely Bonfadio was in error.[35] Though, however, the count of Lavagna (then lord of thirty-three castles) had no secret correspondence with Fregoso nor Strozzi, he certainly had political relations with other persons; and this is what remains after eliminating the falsehoods spread abroad by Spain. Having formed the purpose of deposing the old nobility and restoring the popular government, Fieschi saw that his best policy was to follow the fortunes of the Adorni, whose party his ancestors, and especially his father, had zealously supported. The views of Gianluigi found an echo in the breast of Barnaba Adorno, count of Silvano, of whom we must briefly speak. Silvano is situated in the Val d’Orba in Monferrato, two miles beyond the Giovi. On the east and west lie the villages of St. Cristoforo, then a feud of the Dorias, of Montaldeo--honored as the birth-place, at a later period, of cardinal Mazzarino--and Mornese, a feud of the Serras; on the south lay Cremolino, possessed by the Dorias; and on the north the castles of Carpineto, and Montaldo, and the city of Alessandria. Nearer and almost contiguous to Silvano stood the castles of Lerma, Tagliolo, Ovada, Rocca Grimaldi, Capriata, and Castelletto Val d’Orba, also feuds of Barnaba Adorno.