evelop otherwise than as he did.

These principles are to-day the secret law of all cabinets in which
plans for the conquest and maintenance of great power are laid. In
France we blamed Napoleon when he made use of that Italian genius for
craft which was bred in his bone,--though in his case it did not always
succeed. But Charles V., Catherine, Philip II., and Pope Julius would
not have acted otherwise than as he did in the affair of Spain. History,
in the days when Catherine was born, if judged from the point of view of
honesty, would seem an impossible tale. Charles V., obliged to sustain
Catholicism against the attacks of Luther, who threatened the Throne in
threatening the Tiara, allowed the siege of Rome and held Pope Clement
VII. in prison! This same Clement, who had no bitterer enemy than
Charles V., courted him in order to make Alessandro de' Medici ruler of
Florence, and obtained his favorite daughter for that bastard. No
sooner was Alessandro established than he, conjointly with Clement VII.,
endeavored to injure Charles V. by allying himself with Francois I.,
king of France, by means of Catherine de' Medici; and both of them
promised to assist Francois in reconquering Italy. Lorenzino de' Medici
made himself the companion of Alessandro's debaucheries for the express
purpose of finding an opportunity to kill him. Filippo Strozzi, one of
the great minds of that day, held this murder in such respect that he
swore that his sons should each marry a daughter of the murderer; and
each son religiously fulfilled his father's oath when they might all
have made, under Catherine's protection, brilliant marriages; for one
was the rival of Doria, the other a marshal of France. Cosmo de' Medici,
successor of Alessandro, with whom he had no relationship, avenged the
death of that tyrant in the cruellest manner, with a persistency lasting
twelve years; during which time his hatred continued keen against
the persons who had, as a matter of fact, given him the power. He was
eighteen years old when called to the sovereignty; his first act was to
declare the rights of Alessandro's legitimate sons null and void,--all
the while avenging their father's death! Charles V. confirmed the
disinheriting of his grandsons, and recognized Cosmo instead of the son
of Alessandro and his daughter Margaret. Cosmo, placed on the throne by
Cardinal Cibo, instantly exiled the latter; and the cardinal revenged
himself by accusing Cosmo (who was the f