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H to carry Pisa by escalade, and after sacking Livorno, and ravaging the Maremma, retreated into the Parmigiano. Meanwhile both Bologna and Reggio had joined the enemies of the Visconti. The latter place Hawkwood invested towards the end of July; but the Florentines sent an army to its relief, which defeated Hawkwood (20 Aug.). The defeat was to some extent retrieved by the capture in September of the commander-in-chief of the Florentine army in ambuscade near Mirandola. Negotiations for peace, which were already pending, were thus accelerated, and a treaty was concluded on 16 Nov. 1370. On 2 June 1372 Hawkwood engaged, under the walls of the castle of Rubiera, Count Lucius Landau, who was coming to the aid of the Marquis of Monferrato, then at war with Galeazzo Visconti. Though outnumbered by nearly two to one, Hawkwood defeated and took the count prisoner. He then invaded the marquisate of Monferrato, and laid siege to Asti. The Count of Savoy came to the help of the marquis, and the operations before the town were indecisive, owing, as Hawkwood alleged, to his plans being secretly thwarted by a council of war, whom he scornfully described as ‘escrivans.’ Accordingly in the autumn he suddenly threw up his command.

At the time Pope Gregory XI had declared war on the Visconti, and Hawkwood passed direct from their service into his. In November a papal army of thirteen hundred lances (five hundred under the command of Hawkwood) invaded the Piacentino, and surprised the castle of Borgo Nuovo. The Visconti in the following January sought to create a diversion by threatening Bologna, and Hawkwood was detached with eight hundred lances to protect the city. The Milanese forces, though numerically superior, retreated before him towards Reggio. He pursued, and virtually annihilated them on the Panaro between Modena and Bologna. He then, in conjunction with the Sieur de Coucy, led a force into the Milanese, and up the Chiese towards Brescia, in order to effect a junction with the Count of Savoy, who had crossed the Ticino in February with a considerable force. But this movement was frustrated by the ‘Count of Virtue,’ Gian Galeazzo, son of Galeazzo Visconti, by whom Hawkwood was defeated on 8 May at Montechiaro. Hawkwood, however, rallied his men at Gavardo, and, turning upon the pursuing Milanese, routed them with great slaughter, most of the principal officers being made prisoners. Hawkwood then retreated to Bologna, and a year's truce was arranged with the Visconti on 6 June 1374. The pope had proved a bad paymaster, and Hawkwood, after sending one of his officers, John Brise of Essex, to Avignon to press for a settlement, and obtaining nothing but vague promises and permission to take the matter into his own hands, marched into Tuscany to levy contributions. Having obtained money he retired into the Piacentino, where his company, now largely reinforced and styled the ‘holy company,’ was employed in garrisoning various castles and towns held by the church. In June 1375 he again marched into Tuscany, and in the course of the summer levied contributions from Florence, Pisa, Siena, Lucca, and Arezzo to the amount of about 220,000 florins of gold, 130,000 of which were furnished by Florence alone, Hawkwood and his principal officers at the same time binding themselves and the company not to molest Florence or her allies for the next five years, except in obedience to superior orders. On 12 July the republic granted Hawkwood an annual pension of twelve hundred florins of gold for life.

Hawkwood fixed his headquarters at Perugia, which rose in revolt against the pope (7 Dec.). Instead of suppressing the revolt Hawkwood seized the governor as hostage for arrears of pay, and occupied the castle of Castrocaro, to which the church subsequently added Bagnacavallo, Cotignola, and Conselice, all in Romagna, by way of further security. Meanwhile the revolt spread throughout the Bolognese and Romagna. In Bologna were some of Hawkwood's principal officers and his two sons. He accordingly marched upon the city, devastating the country as he went. The Bolognese thereupon imprisoned all the English in the town, including Hawkwood's boys, but delivered them up to Hawkwood in return for a truce of sixteen months (25 May). Leaving Faenza, which he had previously reduced, in charge of Alberto d'Este, marquis of Ferrara, Hawkwood betook himself to Cotignola, and spent the rest of the year there in enlarging and strengthening the fortifications. The fosse and strong bastioned walls with which he surrounded the town remained almost intact until the middle of the last century. Now all that is left is a single round tower, built as a look-out. Early in February 1377 he was summoned to Cesena, where the populace had risen against a Breton garrison, placed there by Robert of Geneva, cardinal of the church of the Twelve Apostles, and legate of Romagna, afterwards the antipope Clement VII. The cardinal's instructions were ‘Blood, blood, and justice.’ Hawkwood at first demurred, but led his men into the town on the night of 3 Feb., indulged in a general massacre, and looted the town.

Disgusted with this butcher's work, Hawk-