The revolution was planned with great prudence and all contingencies were amply provided for. Unfortunately, however, he was obliged in the exercise of his office as Confaloniere of justice to issue a proclamation against one Andrea Pezzini who was cognisant of the conspiracy. This person in order to gratify his malice, revealed the whole scheme to Duke Cosimo. The government of Luca, mortally terrified by the Pope and the emperor, arrested Burlamacchi, in August 1546, and obtained from him by torture a confession of his revolutionary designs. Luca consigned him to the imperial ministers by whom he was beheaded in Milan.
Some confused and scattered papers which we have seen imply that there were messages and interviews between Gianluigi and Burlamacchi, and this corresponds with that which Adriani has written of the Lucchese revolutionist, viz: that he had formed friendship and made allies in every part of Europe. It is then very probable that he sounded Count Fieschi, whose enmity to the Spaniards was well known, as one whose great wealth and numerous dependents would greatly reinforce the revolution. Fieschi was often at his castle in Pontremoli and it would have been easy for the two to hold secret interviews without awakening the least suspicion. It is possible that Fieschi though satisfied of the good faith of France, believed that nothing could be attempted in Italy without her active coöperation or, being a Guelph, disdained to embark in a scheme for the overthrow of the temporal power of the Papacy.
These first plots of Fieschi confute the charge, disproved by other and more direct evidence, made by sacred college of Padua, that he conspired against the government of the Dorias with the sole object of destroying Gianettino who was paying court to the countess of Lavagna.
He aspires to grandeur for his family--His hostility to the emperor and to Doria--He encourages Gianluigi in his designs against the imperial rule in Genoa--Attempts of Cardinal Trivulzio to induce Fieschi to give Genoa to France--France is induced by the count to relinquish her hopes of obtaining Genoa--Verrina and his spirited counsels--Vengeance of Gianluigi against Giovanni Battista della Torre.