Page:An Account of Corsica (1769).djvu/137

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OF CORSICA.
127

were well conducted, and had many successful engagements with the Genoese.

Their noble enthusiasm always continued, and, notwithstanding many unlucky divisions among themselves, there were still, in different parts, of the island, intrepid bands, animated by the ex- ample of distinguished leaders,

I must here take notice of count Domenico Rivarola. His family was a branch of the house of Rossi, at Parma, one of the most ancient and conspicuous of the Italian nobility. His ancestor had left his fief of Rivarola, in the territory of Mantua, on account of the wars between the emperour, and the countess Matilda, and had settled in the Genoese state, where he quitted the name of Rossi, and took that of Rivarola. This family of Rivalora, greatly increased. In the fifteenth century, Francis Rivarola was, on account of long services, raised to the dignity of a count Palatine, by the emperour Maximilian; from which period, the title has since been in the family. Several descendants of Rivarola were established in Spain, Sicily, and the dominions of Sardinia, and three were established in Corsica, one in Calvi, one in Ajaccio, and one in Bastia; of which last,