Some two years before, he had visited his native land in order to woo and win the beautiful Vannina Ornano for his wife.
The Ornano family was, in point of nobility, far superior to Sampiero's own, but the Corsican colonel's fame in courts and in the field was already too widely spread for him to be considered an unworthy son-in-law to any noble; whilst he himself, we may well believe, was of an appearance well fitted to succeed in winning the affections of any woman. He was a tall man, with the carriage and piercing eye of a soldier, and with dark curling hair and features of a stern nobility, that harmonized well with his character. His nature was simple and self-denying, his life spotless and engrossed with noble aims, and his depth of affection great; but his anger was terrible, and his scorn for weakness or dishonesty almost cruel.
The history of his marriage is a terrible romance, ending in tragedy.
He was already, at the time of his marriage, dreaded by the masters of his country as one likely to be a formidable foe; and they only followed their usual illegal system of tyranny, in falling upon him so soon as he set foot in his own land, and thrusting him into prison. He was soon liberated again, owing to the interference of the French ambassador at the Genoese court; but the incident cannot fail to have deepened his determination to be his country's deliverer when occasion offered.
An opening soon occurred in the project of the French king to lead his troops against Corsica, both as an injury to Genoa, with whom he was at war, and also as a menace to their ally and his enemy, the emperor of Germany.
In the year 1553, a French fleet, joined by some Turkish vessels, and having on board Marshal Thermes, and Admiral Paulin, and Sampiero himself, together with many other exiled Corsican patriots, sailed for the island.
An emissary had already been despatched thither some time before by Sampiero, and the greater part of the nation were awaiting their arrival with eagerness, prepared to welcome the French as friends, and to assist them against the common foe.
The gates of Bastia were immediately thrown open to the invaders. The Genoese garrison and bastion walls of Calvi and Bonifacio proved for some time too strong for Turkish and French vessels; but San Fiorenzo was made to capitulate to Thermes, and the impregnable Corte, and the fortress of Ajaccio, both threw wide their gates to welcome Sampiero.
Presently Bonifacio, after a heroic resistance by the Genoese garrison, surrendered to the Turks; and the Genoese, routed in every direction, had no single fortress left to them save Calvi.
For about three months these successes continued; when the Genoese Bank, terrified at the loss of all their possessions, sent Andreas Doria to the rescue. Doria was now an aged man, but his good fortune remained true to him, and he succeeded in wresting back some of the victories obtained by the French.