lived together in great indigence at Solza, until the lad felt strong enough to enter the service of one of the numerous petty Lombard princes, and to make himself if possible a captain of adventure.  His name alone was a sufficient introduction, and the Duchy of Milan, dismembered upon the death of Gian Maria Visconti, was in such a state that all the minor despots were increasing their forces and preparing to defend by arms the fragments they had seized from the Visconti heritage.  Bartolommeo therefore had no difficulty in recommending himself to Filippo d’Arcello, sometime general in the pay of the Milanese, but now the new lord of Piacenza.  With this master he remained as page for two or three years, learning the use of arms, riding, and training himself in the physical exercises which were indispensable to a young Italian soldier.  Meanwhile Filippo Maria Visconti reacquired his hereditary dominions; and at the age of twenty, Bartolommeo found it prudent to seek a patron stronger than d’Arcello.  The two great Condottieri, Sforza Attendolo and Braccio, divided the military glories of Italy at this period; and any youth who sought to rise in his profession, had to enrol himself under the banners of the one or the other.  Bartolommeo chose Braccio for his master, and was enrolled among his men as a simple trooper, or ragazzo, with no better prospects than he could make for himself by the help of his talents and his borrowed horse and armour.  Braccio at this time was in Apulia, prosecuting the war of the Neapolitan Succession disputed between Alfonso of Aragon and Louis of Anjou under the weak sovereignty of Queen Joan.  On which side of a quarrel a Condottiere fought mattered but little:  so great was the confusion of Italian politics, and so complete was the egotism of these fraudful, violent, and treacherous party leaders.  Yet it may be mentioned that Braccio had espoused Alfonso’s cause.  Bartolommeo Colleoni early distinguished himself among the ranks of the Bracceschi.  But he soon perceived that he could better his position by deserting to another camp.  Accordingly he offered his services to Jacopo Caldora, one of Joan’s generals, and received from him a commission of twenty men-at-arms.  It may here be parenthetically said that the rank and pay of an Italian captain varied with the number of the men he brought into the field.  His title ‘Condottiere’ was derived from the circumstance that he was said to have received a Condotta di venti cavalli, and so forth.  Each cavallo was equal to one mounted man-at-arms and two attendants, who were also called ragazzi.  It was his business to provide the stipulated number of men, to keep them in good discipline, and to satisfy their just demands.  Therefore an Italian army at this epoch consisted of numerous small armies varying in size, each held together by personal engagements to a captain, and all dependent on the will of a general-in-chief, who had made a bargain with some prince or republic