Silvano was fortified by two large and strong towers, and was the usual residence of Adorno, who had strong friends and political allies in all the castles and villages around him. He devoted his early years to arms, and, rising to the rank of colonel under Cæsar, he acquired distinction in Provence and in the kingdom of Naples. In the latter he obtained the feud of Caprarica. Weary of the tumults of war, he retired to his home and married Maddalena, daughter of the Doge Antoniotto Adorno. In beauty, this woman was excelled by few persons of her time. The quiet of Adorno was disturbed by serious quarrels, especially by one with count Paolo Pico of Mirandola, who attacked his lands and put Castelletto to fire and sword. This strife, so bloody in the civil war which it inflamed, was not less spirited before the tribunals of the empire; but it is not our province to enlarge on its many vicissitudes. Adorno cherished the design of cultivating the popular party, and so raising the declining fortunes of his house, and he soon began to attempt plots against the new order in Genoa. In this purpose he turned to the count of Lavagna, through the mediation of a Fra Badaracco, and, after many debates, it was resolved to unite their forces for the overthrow of the Dorias. Barnaba was to be elevated to the Dogate, and the count to govern the eastern Riviera as his father had done before him. They further agreed to place the Republic under the protection of France, without prejudice, however, to its liberties, and solely to secure it from the vengeance of Cæsar. Fra Badaracco, in order to find partisans, held conversations with some gentlemen whom he supposed to be dissatisfied with the government of the Dorias. But these persons exposed the matter in the senate: the friar was arrested, and some letters of Barnaba Adorno were found on his person. After having been tortured, Bardaracco was decapitated, having confessed that, besides Adorno, Gianluigi Fieschi and Pietra Paolo Lasagna were concerned in the conspiracy. The senators, not being able to obtain proofs of their guilt, decided not to prosecute the conspirators. Having thus failed in his first effort, the count sought new paths to his end. He saw that it was necessary to have an understanding with the king of France, as a means of restraining the army which the emperor had in the territories of Milan, and to secure the capture of the fleet of Doria, which was the chief prop of the imperial power. It was plain that these naval and military forces would easily quell any insurrection, unless the troops of France in Piedmont were directed to hold the army of Cæsar in check. Gianluigi was induced to enter into an understanding with France by one of his relatives by blood, of whom we ought briefly to speak, because his name has been almost forgotten in our domestic histories.