The minor cities, purged by murder of their usurpers, once more fell into the grasp of the Milanese despot, after a series of domestic and political tragedies that drenched their streets with blood.

Piacenza was utterly depopulated.

It is recorded that for the space of a year only three of its inhabitants remained within the walls.
[1] I may refer to Dr.Maudsley (Mind and Matter) for a scientific statement of the theory of madness developed by accumulated and hereditary vices.
[2] Corio, p.

301, mentions by name Giovanni da Pusterla and Bertolino del Maino as 'lacerati da i cani del Duca.' Members of the families of these men afterwards helped to kill him.
[3] Beatrice di Tenda, the wife of Facino Cane, was twenty years older than the Duke of Milan.

As soon as the Visconti felt himself assured in his duchy, he caused a false accusation to be brought against her of adultery with the youthful Michele Oranbelli, and, in spite of her innocence, beheaded her in 1418.