Chapter 32 - Page 2

that in an emergency he
might have assistance at hand, without the necessity of having to
solicit a passage for his friends. But he could not possibly secure
this advantage without effecting the ruin of the duke, and making his
dominions a French province; and that the contrary of all this would
result from himself becoming lord of Naples; for having only the
French to fear, he would be compelled to love and caress, nay even to
obey those who had it in their power to open a passage for his
enemies. That thus the title of king of king of Naples would be with
himself (Alfonso), but the power and authority with Filippo; so that
it was much more the duke's business than his own to consider the
danger of one course and the advantage of the other; unless he rather
wished to gratify his private prejudices than to give security to his
dominions. In the one case he would be a free prince, in the other,
placed between two powerful sovereigns, he would either be robbed of
his territories or live in constant fear, and have to obey them like a
slave. These arguments so greatly influenced the duke, that, changing
his design, he set Alfonso at liberty, sent him honorably to Genoa and
then to Naples. From thence the king went to Gaeta, which as soon as
his liberation had become known, was taken possession of by some
nobles of his party.

The Genoese, seeing that the duke, without the least regard for them,
had liberated the king, and gained credit to himself through the
dangers and expense which they had incurred; that he enjoyed all the
honor of the liberation, and they were themselves exposed to the odium
of the capture, and the injuries consequent upon the king's defeat,
were greatly exasperated. In the city of Genoa, while in the enjoyment
of her liberty, a magistrate is created with the consent of the
people, whom they call the Doge; not that he is absolutely a prince,
or that he alone has the power of determining matters of government;
but that, as the head of the state, he proposes those questions or
subjects which have to be considered and determined by the magistrates
and the councils. In that city are many noble families so powerful,
that they are with great difficulty induced to submit to the authority
of the law. Of these, the most powerful are the Fregosa and the
Adorna, from whom arise the dissensions of the city, and the impotence
of her civil regulations; for the possession of this high office being
contested by means inadmissible in well-regulated communities, and
most commonly with arms in their hands, it always occurs that one
party is oppressed and the other triumphant; and sometimes those who
fail in the pursuit have recourse to the arms of strangers, and the
country they are not allowed to rule