For a few years after his accession Ostoja had been friendly to Ragusa, and in 1399 he granted them a further stretch of coast from Stagno to Klek, near the mouth of the Narenta. For this the citizens had given him a palace in the town and made him an honorary citizen; they granted the same favours to Hrvoje for his intercession.[341] But Ostoja, finding himself with no coastline save the bit between the rivers Četina and the Narenta, repented of his generosity, and tried to induce Ragusa to recognise Bosnian supremacy. When in 1400 the envoys brought him the tribute he suggested that the city should throw off the Hungarian yoke and come under his protection. But the Republic would not hear of the proposal, preferring to obey the distant and complaisant King of Hungary rather than the near and untrustworthy King of Bosnia. The latter did not yet feel strong enough to attack the city openly with any chance of success where Tvrtko had failed, so he resorted, if we are to believe the local historians, to intrigue, and secretly fomented a conspiracy of ambitious nobles. The circumstances of the plot are not very clear, and Ragnina’s account, detailed though it is, leaves much unexplained. In the early part of 1400 four nobles, Niccolò and Giacomo Zamagna, and Lorenzo and Simeone Bodazza, determined to become masters of the city with the help of the Count of Popovo (in the Herzegovina), the Vojvod of Trebinje, and other Bosnian barons. According to Ragnina the conspiracy was engineered by Ostoja, or by Stephen the Despot of Servia. It is more likely that the former was privy to it, as the Despot of Servia was now a person of no importance, and his territory did not even border with that of the Republic. The Bosnian king probably saw in this plot a means of possessing himself of the town and its valuable port; but he did not appear in the actual intrigue, which was carried on by the neighbouring vojvods. Ragusa at this time was almost deserted, a large part of its inhabitants having taken refuge in the neighbouring country on account of the plague. On the Feast of the Forty Martyrs (March 9) a number of the conspirators were to dine in the house of a certain artisan at Ragusa to mature their plans. The man not having enough table utensils for the company sent his wife to the house of a noble named Niccolò Gozze, in whose service she had been, to ask for a loan of the required articles. Gozze promised to lend them, but wanted to know for whom they were required. The woman told him the names of the nobles in question, and as they were men of somewhat shady antecedents Gozze became suspicious. He bribed the woman to take note of all that she should hear at supper, and to report it to him the following morning. This she did, and informed Gozze that a Morlach named Miloš and four companions had come with the nobles, and that it was agreed that Miloš should wait at the town gate for a Slave messenger who was expected with