first was the Doge in his state robes, attended by the government in office, or the Signoria of S. Mark.  On the second were members of the Senate and minor magistrates.  The third carried the ambassadors of foreign powers.  Colleoni was received into the first state-galley, and placed by the side of the Doge.  The oarsmen soon cleared the space between the land and Venice, passed the small canals, and swept majestically up the Canalozzo among the plaudits of the crowds assembled on both sides to cheer their General.  Thus they reached the piazzetta, where Colleoni alighted between the two great pillars, and, conducted by the Doge in person, walked to the Church of S. Mark.  Here, after Mass had been said, and a sermon had been preached, kneeling before the high altar he received the truncheon from the Doge’s hands.  The words of his commission ran as follows:—­

’By authority and decree of this most excellent City of Venice, of us the Prince, and of the Senate, you are to be Commander and Captain General of all our forces and armaments on terra firma.  Take from our hands this truncheon, with good augury and fortune, as sign and warrant of your power.  Be it your care and effort, with dignity and splendour to maintain and to defend the Majesty, the Loyalty, and the Principles of this Empire.  Neither provoking, not yet provoked, unless at our command, shall you break into open warfare with our enemies.  Free jurisdiction and lordship over each one of our soldiers, except in cases of treason, we hereby commit to you.’

After the ceremony of his reception, Colleoni was conducted with no less pomp to his lodgings, and the next ten days were spent in festivities of all sorts.

The commandership-in-chief of the Venetian forces was perhaps the highest military post in Italy.  It placed Colleoni on the pinnacle of his profession, and made his camp the favourite school of young soldiers.  Among his pupils or lieutenants we read of Ercole d’Este, the future Duke of Ferrara; Alessandro Sforza, lord of Pesaro; Boniface, Marquis of Montferrat; Cicco and Pino Ordelaffi, princes of Forli; Astorre Manfredi, the lord of Faenza; three Counts of Mirandola; two princes of Carpi; Deifobo, the Count of Anguillara; Giovanni Antonio Caldora, lord of Jesi in the March; and many others of less name.  Honours came thick upon him.  When one of the many ineffectual leagues against the infidel was formed in 1468, during the pontificate of Paul II., he was named Captain-General for the Crusade.  Pius II. designed him for the leader of the expedition he had planned against the impious and savage despot, Sigismondo Malatesta.  King Rene of Anjou, by special patent, authorised him to bear his name and arms, and made him a member of his family.  The Duke of Burgundy, by a similar heraldic fiction, conferred upon him his name and armorial bearings.  This will explain why Colleoni is often styled ’di Andegavia e Borgogna.’  In the case of Rene, the honour was but a barren show.