The one defect acknowledged by his biographer was his partiality for women.  Early in life he married Tisbe, of the noble house of the Brescian Martinenghi, who bore him one daughter, Caterina, wedded to Gasparre Martinengo.  Two illegitimate daughters, Ursina and Isotta, were recognised and treated by him as legitimate.  The first he gave in marriage to Gherardo Martinengo, and the second to Jacopo of the same family.  Two other natural children, Doratina and Ricardona, were mentioned in his will:  he left them four thousand ducats a piece for dowry.  Medea, the child of his old age (for she was born to him when he was sixty), died before her father, and was buried, as we have seen, in the Chapel of Basella.

Throughout his life he was distinguished for great physical strength and agility.  When he first joined the troop of Braccio, he could race, with his corselet on, against the swiftest runner of the army; and when he was stripped, few horses could beat him in speed.  Far on into old age he was in the habit of taking long walks every morning for the sake of exercise, and delighted in feats of arms and jousting matches.  ’He was tall, straight, and full of flesh, well proportioned, and excellently made in all his limbs.  His complexion inclined somewhat to brown, but was coloured with sanguine and lively carnation.  His eyes were black; in look and sharpness of light, they were vivid, piercing, and terrible.  The outlines of his nose and all his countenance expressed a certain manly nobleness, combined with goodness and prudence.’  Such is the portrait drawn of Colleoni by his biographer; and it well accords with the famous bronze statue of the general at Venice.

Colleoni lived with a magnificence that suited his rank.  His favourite place of abode was Malpaga, a castle built by him at the distance of about an hour’s drive from Bergamo.  The place is worth a visit, though its courts and gates and galleries have now been turned into a monster farm, and the southern rooms, where Colleoni entertained his guests, are given over to the silkworms.  Half a dozen families, employed upon a vast estate of the Martinengo family, occupy the still substantial house and stables.  The moat is planted with mulberry-trees; the upper rooms are used as granaries for golden maize; cows, pigs, and horses litter in the spacious yard.  Yet the walls of the inner court and of the ancient state rooms are brilliant with frescoes, executed by some good Venetian hand, which represent the chief events of Colleoni’s life—­his battles, his reception by the Signory of Venice, his tournaments and hawking parties, and the great series of entertainments with which he welcomed Christiern of Denmark.  This king had made his pilgrimage to Rome and was returning westward, when the fame of Colleoni and his princely state at Malpaga induced him to turn aside and spend some days as the general’s guest.  In order to do him honour, Colleoni left his castle at the king’s disposal and established himself