sures for the slaughter of his
enemy.

Thus ended the terrible "Conspiracy of the Pazzi."

CHAPTER II

IPPOLITO--"_Il Cardinale_."

ALESSANDRO--"_Il Negro_."

LORENZINO--"_Il Terribile_."

_The First Tyrannicide_

"Go at once, ye base-born bastards, or I will be the first to thrust you
out--Begone!"

These were the passionate words of the proudest and most ambitious
princess that ever bore the great name of Medici--Clarice, daughter of
Piero di Lorenzo--"Il Magnifico," and wife of Filippo di Filippo degli
Strozzi--"Il Primo Gentiluomo del Secolo."

They were spoken on 16th May 1527, in the Long Gallery of the Palazzo
Medici in Florence, and were addressed to two youths--sixteen and
thirteen years old respectively, who shrank with terror at the aspect
and the vehemence of their contemner. Clarice was a virago, both in the
Florentine sense of man's equal in ability and action, and in the sense
of the present day--a woman with a mighty will and endowed with physical
strength to enforce it.

The two "bastards" were Ippolito, the natural son of Giuliano de'
Medici, Duke of Nemours, and Alessandro, the so-called illegitimate son
of Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, the virtual ruler of Florence.
The lads were not alone in their exposure to the wrath of Madonna
Clarice, for, sitting in his chair of estate, was Silvio Passerini,
Cardinal of Cortona, their Governor, and Pope Clement VII.'s Regent of
the Republic.

"Begone"! Well had it been if the Cardinal had taken his charges right
away from Florence never to return.

* * * * *

"The splendour, not of Tuscany only, but of the whole of Italy has
disappeared!" wrote Benedetto Dei, in his _Cronica_. "The Burial
Confraternity of the Magi laid his body in the sacristy of San Lorenzo,
and the next day the funeral obsequies were held without pomp--as is the
custom of the _Signori_--but quite simply. Truly it may be said that
however gorgeous the ceremonies might have been, they would have proved
altogether too mean for so great a man."

This relates to the death of Lorenzo il Magnifico, which occurred on 8th
April 1492. That year is one of the most memorable in modern history:
Columbus discovered America; Roderigo Borgia was elected Pope; Charles
VIII. became the most prominent political figure in Europe; and the
power of Florence had reached its zenith.

She was not only the Head of the Tuscan League and the chief Rep