ci,
the _Gonfaloniere di Giustizia_!

As for Count Girolamo, who had, coward-like, kept in the background--he
was probably little more than a complacent tool in the hands of the
pontiff--he was permitted to leave Florence in the train of the young
Cardinal, immediately before the reception of the Interdict. He returned
to Rome and abandoned himself to a life of profligacy; his palace became
a brothel and a gambling hell, and there he lived for ten years,
dishonoured and diseased. His retributive death was by the hand of an
assassin in 1488.

The failure of the plot, whilst it added tremendously to the popularity
of the Medici and strengthened still more Lorenzo's position, threw the
Pope frantically into the arms of the King of Naples. He persuaded him
to join in a combined and powerful invasion of Tuscany. At Ironto the
Neapolitan troops crossed the frontier and encamped, whilst the Papal
forces moved on from Perugia and Siena.

Lorenzo at once called a Parliament to consider the position, and to
take steps for the protection of the city and the defence of the State.
He addressed the assembly as follows: "I know not, Most Excellent Lords
and Most Worshipful Citizens, whether to mourn or to rejoice with you
over what has happened. When I think of the treachery and hatred
wherewith I have been attacked, and my brother slain, I cannot but
grieve; but when I reflect with what eagerness and zeal, with what love
and unanimity, on the part of the whole city, my brother has been
avenged and myself defended, I am moved not merely to rejoice, but even
to glory in what has transpired. For, if I have found that I have more
enemies in Florence than I had thought I had, I have at the same time
discovered that I have warmer and more devoted friends than I knew....
It lies with you, my Most Excellent Lords, to support me still, or to
throw me over.... You are my fathers and protectors, and what you wish
me to do, I shall do only too willingly...."

All the hearers were deeply affected by Lorenzo's oration, some indeed
shed tears, but all vowed to support him in resisting the enemy at the
gate. "Take courage," they cried, "it behoves thee, Lorenzo, to live and
die for the Republic!"

At the same time they enrolled a bodyguard of twelve soldiers, whose
duty it should be to accompany Lorenzo whenever he went abroad, and to
protect him in his palace or at his villas. Doubtless they thought the
Pope might resort to further secret mea