decade of Lorenzo's life--from his thirty-first to his
forty-second year--was memorable in many respects. In the year 1481 he
was again exposed to the danger of assassination. Battista Frescobaldi
and two assistants in the Church of the Carmeli, and again on Ascension
Day, made an attempt to stab him, but were frustrated by the vigilance of
Lorenzo's friends. There is no doubt that this second attempt was also
instigated by Girolamo Riario, the nephew of Sixtus IV. Thereafter
Lorenzo never moved out without a strong bodyguard of friends and
adherents--a precaution rendered necessary by the repeated plots that
were being hatched against him by his enemies.

No sooner had the presence of the Turks at Otranto, in the extreme
southeast of Italy, been rendered a thing of the past by the surrender of
the Moslem garrison to the Duke of Calabria in September, 1481, than
the peninsula was again ranged in opposing camps by the attempt of the
Venetians, assisted by Sixtus and his nephew, to dispossess Ercole
d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, of his dominions. The Duke had married
the daughter of Ferdinand, King of Naples, an alliance which, by
strengthening him, gave on that account great offence to the Venetians.
They therefore sought to provoke him by insisting on their monopoly of
the manufacture of salt in North Italy, and by building a fortress on
a part of the Ferrarese territory which they pretended was within the
limits of their own. When he remonstrated, they declined to remove it. In
vain he appealed to Sixtus. The latter was one of the wolves waiting to
devour him. He then turned to Lorenzo.

To the inexpressible chagrin of Venice and of Sixtus, the Magnifico
promptly espoused his cause, formed an alliance with Ferdinand and other
states, and, before the Pope and the Venetians were aware he had moved,
they found themselves confronted by Naples, Florence, Milan, Bologna,
Mantua, and Faenza. The allies were commanded by Federigo of Montefeltro,
Duke of Urbino, while the Venetian-papal troops were placed under Ruberto
Malatesta of Rimini. In this campaign, however, Lorenzo was really the
master-spirit. Although successes were won on both sides, a more than
usually tragic complexion was given to the war by the death of the two
commanders of the opposing forces. They had been friends from youth, and
such a trifle as the fact that they were hired to fight against each
other never disturbed the tenor of their mutual regard. Armstrong