One day they were in hopes, another in despair. However, their friends were active in Italy, especially in Milan, where John Galeas[214] was duke; not the great Galeas[215], who is buried in the Chartreux at Pavia, but the son of Duke Galeas[216] and the Duchess Bona[217], a daughter of the House of Savoy; which duke being a weak prince, the Duchess had the education of her children; and I saw her (when she was a widow) in great authority, but managed by one of her secretaries called Cico[218], who had been a long time in that family, and had banished or imprisoned all the brothers[219] of this Duke Galeas, in order to secure the duchess and her children. Among the rest he banished one Ludovic[220] (who has since become Duke of Milan), whom she afterwards recalled, though he was her enemy, and actually in arms against her; as she did also the Lord Robert di St. Severino[221], a valiant captain whom this Cico had likewise banished. At last, by the persuasion of one Anthony Tassini[222], who was her carver (a native of Ferrara, and of mean extraction), she recalled them very indiscreetly; presuming that, according to their oaths and promises, they would do no harm to Cico. But the third day after their return they took Cico, put him in a tub, and carried him through the town of Milan; for he was allied by marriage with one of the family of the Visconti, and had he been in the way, it is said they would not have dared to seize Cico; and the Lord Ludovic contrived that Robert di St. Severino, who was to pass that way, might have the pleasure of meeting him in that posture, for he knew he abhorred him: after which Cico was conducted to the castle of Pavia, where he died a prisoner.