The most extravagant lust, the meanest and the vilest cruelty, supplied Galeazzo Maria with daily recreation.[1] He it was who used to feed his victims on abominations or to bury them alive, and who found a pleasure in wounding or degrading those whom he had made his confidants and friends.

The details of his assassination, in 1476, though well known, are so interesting that I may be excused for pausing to repeat them here; especially as they illustrate a moral characteristic of this period which is intimately connected with the despotism.

Three young nobles of Milan, educated in the classic literature by Montano, a distinguished Bolognese scholar, had imbibed from their studies of Greek and Latin history an ardent thirst for liberty and a deadly hatred of tyrants.[2] Their names were Carlo Visconti, Girolamo Olgiati, and Giannandrea Lampugnani.

Galeazzo Sforza had wounded the two latter in the points which men hold dearest--their honor and their property[3]--by outraging the sister of Olgiati and by depriving Lampugnani of the patronage of the Abbey of Miramondo.

The spirit of Harmodius and Virginius was kindled in the friends, and they determined to rid Milan of her despot.