The estates of the Pallavicini and Fieschi were separated only by a little stream; and the count seeing a war cloud on the horizon, so near to his own fields, visited his feuds in the summer of 1546, under pretence of watching over his property. He spent some time at Lavagna, Montobbio, and Pontremoli. Here he collected his dependents, formed them into companies, and held musters and reviews. He would have gone farther, if the emperor, fearing that the Pallavicini dispute with Pierluigi would excite a general Italian war, and so distract his attention from his campaign against the Smacalda league in Germany, had not sent peremptory orders to Don Ferrante Gonzaga, who had succeeded to Marquis Vasto in the government of Milan, to pacify the quarrel, threatening the whole weight of the imperial displeasure against any who should refuse his mediation. The duke was induced to lay down his arms by the shrewd Pontiff, who did not wish an open rupture with Cæsar, and Count Fieschi was chosen by Farnese as arbiter of the rival claims. These two--Farnese and Fieschi--had been on intimate terms some years before, at the time when the former came to Genoa, (1542), in company with Annibal Caro and Appollonio Filareto, his secretaries, to pay homage to the emperor and to ask a congress in the name of the Pope--the congress which took place in Busseto. Fieschi, mindful of old ties, conducted the negociation with so much dexterity that he obtained from Pallavicini more than the duke had dared to hope. A friendly and familiar correspondence always continued between them, as several letters we have had in our hands prove. Among them there is one of the 3rd of February, 1546--now preserved among the Farnesian papers in Parma--in which the count recommends to the duke a master-workman, Giacomo Merello, “a maker of cannon of rare skill in his profession,” who had a law-suit with another master workman in Parma. In these letters the count acknowledges that he has received many favours from the duke. In their many interviews in Piacenza, Farnese, who knew what had been said and done at Rome, spoke freely of his hatred towards Cæsar, who had openly favoured the Pallavicini, and who was a constant enemy of the advancement of the Farnese family. He avowed that he was ready to throw himself into any undertaking which should promise him revenge. The count in his turn, enlarged on the enmity between himself and the Dorias, the oppressors of his country, on the plots of Gianettino, already known to him, and finally asked the assistance and support of the duke in his contemplated insurrection. It is needless to say that the duke gave liberal promises of aid in a work which would take away the influence of the Dorias, his hereditary enemies, and doubtless add something to his personal importance and wealth.