Fieschi now exposed his plans (in this point all the historians agree and are confirmed by the manuscripts we have seen) to three of his most devoted friends, Raffaele Sacco, Vincenzo Calcagno and Giovanni Battista Verrina. He submitted to them the question whether he should attempt a revolution relying solely on his own forces, or undertake it in alliance with France. Sacco was born of not obscure lineage in Savona, being descended from a knight of Malta and entitled to the annual gift of a paschal lamb. We find that a branch of the Sacco family living in Genoa had been united to the family of Venti, and not long after, in 1363, to that of the Franchi. Sacco was auditor and judge in the feuds of the count and knew intimately the feelings of his master. He advised that the French arms be accepted--an opinion partly explained by his being of Savona. Your forces, said he, are too weak to oppose those of Doria and the emperor; and though it may be easy to capture the city by a _coup de main_, it will be impossible to hold it unless you are promptly reënforced by a good body of troops. Vincenzo Calcagno was beloved by Gianluigi for long and faithful services. After the warmest protestations of his fidelity and obedience as a vassal, he spoke at length of the evils of civil war and foreign intervention which must follow from an attempt to change the government. He enlarged on the difficulties of the enterprise. Doria had twenty galleys. The sea coast and nobility were his. Foreign rule was hateful to the Genoese, but above all that of France. Francis occupied by home politics, embarrassed in Lombardy and in Naples, would not bestow a thought on Genoa if he did not hope to acquire his lost power over her. The nobility are in power and hate revolution, and even the plebeians would oppose a new order of things unless proposed by a noble. The people are unwilling to obey men without high rank, accustomed not to yield even to the nobles without desperate necessity,--and, stimulated by recent events, they would demand full control of the government. But granted that the revolution may succeed, no sooner would the new state be created than the crests of Adorni and Fregoso would be seen in the foreground. These powerful families, still beloved by the people, would never consent to submit the government to the control of a species of prince--a thing they have for centuries resisted with their blood--so that the efforts of the count will not enhance his personal grandeur, but only promote the interests of rival families; the name of Fieschi will become a reproach, distrusted by the nobles, despised by the people and hated by Cæsar. Calcagno would have gone on to dissuade the count from the whole scheme if the impetuous Verrina had not interrupted him with impatience and anger.