At the news of the surrender of Montobbio, the senate again assembled. Most of the senators held that one of the first families of Italy, bound by relationship to the most illustrious houses, ought not to be plunged into deeper calamity. They plead with Doria. The Fieschi had been sufficiently punished by the confiscation of their property, the destruction of their houses and the death of Gianluigi. Why vent unchristian rage on the heads of Gerolamo and his brothers? They were unfortunate young men to whom the plots of their brother had been unknown. Gianluigi had suddenly precipitated them into rebellion and they deserved pardon for their almost involuntary share in the conspiracy. Let Doria open his great heart to more generous, to more magnanimous counsels. Let him imitate the example of Cæsar who would not condemn to death the Saxon whom he had conquered in battle.
Doria was deaf to these appeals of the senators. He refused all compromises. The Fieschi and their companions must die. The writers in the Doria interest do not disguise this fact. Mascardi says:—
“Those who favoured clemency were in the majority. They urged that forbearance was a necessary quality in governments, that the violence of Gianluigi mitigated the guilt of his confederates and that the youth of his brothers ought to extenuate their offence. Andrea Doria was greatly displeased to see the Republic so basely betrayed, and going into the senate he spoke with so much force and authority that the unfortunate men were condemned to death.”
In the monastery of St. Andrea della Porta lived a sister of the Fieschi named Suor Angela Catterina. She imitated the example of the two pious women in her family, of whom we have elsewhere spoken, and she was held in high esteem. As soon as she heard of the condemnation of her brother, Gerolamo, she made the most earnest supplications to the government on his behalf.
“I could not,” said the afflicted sister, “abandon a brother in such a terrible calamity. That God, whom human judges ought to imitate, is compassionate as well as just with sinners. Senators should remember that Gerolamo was drawn into the conspiracy of his brother without any previous knowledge of his intentions, and, that he himself has never plotted against the Republic, that he surrendered Montobbio with the confident expectation that the senate would spare his life. The senate should keep faith and pardon this son of Sinibaldo one of the warmest advocates and defenders of the union and liberty of the country. Let them remember what Christ said: ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy;’ almost beside myself with grief and more dead than alive, I fall at the feet of the prince and conjure him by the mercy of Christ to pardon my poor brother.” It was in vain. She was encouraged to hope, but the pardon never came. The senate had not the courage to take the victim out of the hands of Doria.
The populace was still agitated and full of seditious plans. Though a deep mystery enveloped the action of the government, the people suspected the vindictive intention of Doria and threatened revolt. This led the government to transfer the execution from Genoa to Montobbio. Two priests were at once despatched to the castle, Gian Maria Paulocio, one of the officers of the Ruota, and Tommaso Doria, to examine the prisoners and report their defence to the senate.
Soon after the Podesta for criminal cases was also sent, under decree of the 4th of July. This was Polidamante del Majno a man of considerable talents. The count, Verrina and other leaders were subjected to the rope torture, a useless barbarity because they were already condemned to death. Polidamante tried every means to escape this painful office, and we learn from some letters of his to the senate that he had protested against being commissioned for the examination.
The Republic had begun by declaring the Fieschi guilty of high treason and denying them trial or defence. He subsequently wrote to the senate: “If your excellencies do not make some change, I shall be in a very painful position and people may justly think that I prosecute this unfortunate affair (maladetta causa) with personal motives. You know how I laboured to relieve myself from this duty. Therefore I beseech you to relieve me at once from my present embarrassment by declaring clearly that we may admit new testimony, or by revoking your second decree, and proceeding logically by carrying out your first executive mandate.” The senate solved the difficulty by ordering the punishment of the prisoners without trial. The common soldiers were pardoned. Some of the conspirators were condemned to the halter, others to the oar.
The sentence was executed on the 23rd of July. Desiderio Cangialanza was the first to mount the scaffold and he was followed by some whose names history has not preserved. It was too busy with laudations of Doria and invectives against the fallen. Gerolamo, Verrina and Assereto, being patricians, were beheaded in the chapel of San Rocco at the foot of the fortress. Servile as was the age it was forced to admire the heroic bearing of Verrina whose character was cast in the old Roman mould. He was twice tortured, but he would not utter a word about the secrets of the conspiracy. The night preceeding his execution he spoke with serenity of the doctrines to which he had given his faith, and encouraged his companions to meet their last hour with courageous composure. He went to the scaffold with the step rather of a conqueror than of a criminal.
The sentence of death embraced the exiles Ottobuono and Cornelio, and, what is more iniquitous, the youthful Scipione and his descendants to the fifth generation were banished. Some writers have maintained that Sacco was also executed at Montobbio. But though the documents relating to the treaty with Gerolamo are few and it is apparent that many have been surreptitiously removed from the public archives, yet we have been so fortunate as to find some letters of Sacco himself which entirely invalidate this statement. Another person has already printed some of them. His correspondence with Luigi Ferrero of Savona, in February, show that he was then in Turin on his way back from France.