ABSTRACT
Some time later men under the command of Captain Camillo Gennari, the Marquis of Vasto’s infantry colonel, turned up at the gates of the walled village of Vailate. ey demanded to be billeted even though they had no ducal license. e consoli (a kind of mayor) of Vailate immediately wrote to the troops’ ducal paymaster, Alessandro Bentivoglio, to enquire what should be done. While awaiting a reply and lacking precise orders from the Marquis of Vasto, Gennari’s troops were quartered around the village where they caused damage and disturbance to the inhabitants: e water mills were damaged, the troops had threatened to set the village on re, nobody was allowed to enter or leave, and even the duke’s exciseman, coming to collect the salt taxes, was rudely driven away by the soldiers.2
