The Sun.
London, England, 1832-02-14 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 14, 1832.

GALEAZZO SFORZA, AN ITALIAN

TYRANT, 1476.

Another conspiracy was formed the same
year, at illilan, against Galeazzo Sforza, whose
yoke became insupportable to all who had any
elevation of soul. There was no crime of which
that false and ferocious man was not believed to
be capable. Among other crimes, he was ac-
cused of having poisoned his mother. It was
remarked of him, that, enjoying the spectacle of
! astonishment and despair, he always -preferred to
strike the most suddenly and cruelly those whom
he had given most reason to rely on his friend-
ship. Not satisfied with making the most dis-
tinguished women of his states the victims of his
seduction or his violence, he took pleasure in
publishing their shame—in exposing it to their
brothers or husbands. He not unfrequently
gave them up to prostitution. His extravagant
pomp exhausted his finances, which he afterwards
recruited by the most cruel extortion on the

people. He took pleasure in inventing new and
most atrocious forms of capital punishment ;
even that of burying his victims alive was not the
most cruel. At last three young nobles, of
families who had courageously resisted the-
usurpation of Francesco Sforza, and who had

themselves experienced the injustice and out-
rages of his son, resolved to deliver their country
from this monster ; not doubting that, when
he had fallen, the Milanese would joyfully
unite in substituting a free government for a
tyranny. Girolamo Olgiati, Carlo Visconti, and
Andrea Lampugnani, resolved, in concert, to trust.
only to themselves, without admitting one other
person into their secret. Their enthusiasm had
been excited by the lessons of their literary in-
structor, Colas di Montano, who continually set
before them the grandeur of the ancient Repub-
lics, and the glory of those who had delivered
them from tyranny. Determined on killing the
Duke, they long exercised themselves in the
handling of the dagger, to be more sure of
striking him, each in the precise part of the
tyrant's body assigned to him. Animated with
a religious zeal, not less ardent than their repub-
lican enthusiasm, they prepared themselves by
prayer, by vows to St. Stephen, and by the
assistance of the mass, for the act which they
were about to perform. They made choice of
the 26th of December, 1476, St. Stephen's day,
on which they knew that the Duke Galeazzo
would go in state to the church of the saint.
They waited for him in that church ; and when
they saw him advance between the Ambassadors
of Ferrara and Mantua, they respectfully ap-
proached him, their caps in hand. Feigning to

keep off the crowd, they surrounded him, and
struck him all at the same instant, in the midst
of his guards and courtiers. Galeazzo Sforza
fell dead under their weapons ; and the crowd
which filled the church saw the tumult, arid
heard the cries, without comprehending the
cause.—Dr. Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopcedia,
Vol. XXVII. Sismondi' s History ofthe Ita-
lian Republics.

,
how to consolidate this good state, to which he
pretended to have restored the Romans. He
continued to occupy them with allegories, fes-
tivals, and processions, while they demanded of
him something more positive. His head was
turned by vanity ; and he assumed a degree of
pomp which excited ridicule. He had soon to
support a war against the nobles whom he had
exiled ; and though several of the Colonnas pe-
rished in an ill-conducted attack on Rome,
Cola, in repelling them, gave proofs of incapa-
city and cowardice. The Pope sent a legate to
Rome, to appease the civil war, and this legate,
being a French noble, sided with the nobility.
The latter having taken possession of a division
of the town, the tocsin summoned the people to
defend themselves, but it sounded in vain ; and
on the 15th of December, 1347, Cola di Rienzo,
obliged to abandon the capitol, retreated to the
castle of St. Angelo, and afterwards sought
refuge with Charles IV., son of John, King of
Bohemia, who gave him up to the Pope in
1352.—Dr. Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopcedia,
Vol. XXVII. Sismondi's History of the
Italian States.