A hard, tough leader, Pezza gave no quarter. His men committed "most monstrous misdeeds," torturing and murdering hundreds of prisoners of war, including a French general. He was so ferocious that for a time Cardinal Ruffo placed him under arrest for his many atrocities. Nevertheless, for his services, Pezza was made a colonel in the army, ennobled as the Duke of Cassero, granted an annual pension of 2,500 ducats — making him one of the richest men in the district — and even given a lock of the queen's hair. He settled down near Itri with his wife, Fortunata Rachele Di Franco, a local beauty whom he had married in July 1799, when she was just 18, and he was en route to the liberation of Rome. For the next few years they lived quietly, while producing two sons.