ugh, the Cardinal's horse had been left
tethered by its affrighted groom hard by, so without awaiting news from
the Archbishop, he vaulted into the saddle and made off at a hand gallop
to the Porta Santa Croce.

With more cunning than Giacopo had shown, he made, not to the Tuscan
hills, but to the Tuscan sea, and reached Corneto just in time to board
a ship bound for the East, and at the point of weighing anchor. At
Galata he went ashore and communicated with Sixtus, who sent him a
goodly sum of money and sundry Papal safeguards, with his blessing!

There he lay hid for many weeks, but, as luck would have it, one day he
came out of his lair in a Turkish divan, and encountered an agent of the
Medici, who recognised him, followed him, and charged him before the
Pasha. Put in irons by the Sultan's command, communication was made with
Lorenzo. An envoy was despatched to Constantinople, to whom the wretch
was handed, and, two months after his crimes in Santa Maria del Fiore,
his living body was added to the string of stinking corpses, upon the
side of the Campanile, which still dangled in their iron chains, betwixt
earth and heaven, rained on and withered by the elements, and fed upon
by carrion!

All the seven sons of Piero de' Pazzi were banished for life. They seem
to have had no very intimate knowledge of the conspiracy; indeed, they
were all away from Florence, except the fourth, Renato, and he was
beheaded "for not having revealed the plot, he being privy to the
treachery of his uncle Giacopo and his cousin Francesco."

Renato, indeed, tried to escape, knowing that he was implicated,
although not engaged in the plot, but the garrison of Radicofani
discovered him and his hiding-place, and he was despatched under guard
to Florence. Giovanni de' Pazzi, Francesco's brother, who had married
Beatrice Buonromeo, hid, for a time, in the monastery of Degli Angeli,
and then, with his wife, was banished to the castle of Volterra, where
he died in 1481. It does not appear that he took any active part in the
plot, although his wronging by Lorenzo was the spark which fired the
whole conspiracy.

Guglielmo de' Pazzi, the husband of Bianca de' Medici, Lorenzo and
Giuliano's sister, was protected by _Il Magnifico_, and allowed to
reside in a villa twelve miles outside Florence.

Napoleone de' Franzesi, alone of all the conspirators, effected his
escape, but Piero de' Vespucci, father-in-law to "_La bella
Simonetta_"--"_Il bel Gi