But the sluggish Emperor Wenceslaus refused to take action against him; nay, in 1395 he granted to the Visconti the investiture of the Duchy of Milan for 100,000 florins, reserving only Pavia for himself.

In 1399 the Duke laid hands on Siena; and in the next two years the plague came to his assistance by enfeebling the ruling families of Lucca and Bologna, the Guinizzi and the Bentivogli, so that he was now able to take possession of those cities.
[1] Il Biscione, or the Great Serpent, was the name commonly given to the tyranny of the Visconti (see M.Villani, vi.

8), in allusion to their ensign of a naked child issuing from a snake's mouth.
[2] Corio, p.

255, tells how the murder was accomplished.

Antonio tried to make it appear that his brother Bartolommeo had met his death in the prosecution of infamous amours.
[3] Savoy was not in his hands, however, and the Marquisate of Montferrat remained nominally independent, though he held its heir in a kind of honorable confinement.