Meantime Gianluigi, who could ill tolerate delay, enlisted in his service a large number of men, then just discharged from the ducal army, and distributed them among his most remote castles. Having returned to the city, he kept Farnese advised, by frequent messengers and letters of all his movements and successes. Some of these letters are now passing through the press. In one of these, dated the 17th of April, he complains to the duke that Gianettino had given him an order from Cæsar to send his fourth galley to cruise for pirates; he speaks of plots woven for him by the young admiral, and asks the advice of Farnese. The Duke advised that his plans be hurried forward, and mentioned, as a special inducement, that Renèe, of France, duchess of Ferrara, had again offered French aid through Pierluigi. But it is certain that the count made no more use of this offer than he had made of others like it. We find in ancient chronicles a statement which would be greatly to the credit of both Farnese and Fieschi. They had, according to these writers, laid the foundations of a league common to all the Italian princes, the object of which was to remove from the Peninsula every vestige of foreign power; but historical fidelity compels us to say that we have found no document which clearly proves the fact. In July, the count went to Montobbio, drilled his vassals in military exercises, and put his castles in such a state of defence as to be able to resist a long siege. He then went through, one after another, his principal feuds. It is worth our while to touch in passing upon the condition of some of them at the time of which we write. Passing along the Eastern Riviera from Genoa, the count would first enter into Recco. It was then a large borough with three hundred and seventy-four fires, and he had built in it a superb palace called the Astrego. He drew from this feud select mariners, to man his galleys. He visited Roccatagliata and Cariseto, castles of considerable strength. He added to their defences and supplied them with provisions. We find that he spent some time at the castle of Varzi, on the slope of Penice, formerly one of the principal fortresses of the Malaspini, near Bobbio. He remained longer still in Lavagna. This region, though not then so prosperous as it was before Frederick II., reduced it to a desert, (1245) and levelled the fourteen castles which the counts had built there, was yet a feud of considerable importance, on account of its slate quarries.