e greatly incensed Clement, who at length
dismissed him in disgrace. Lorenzo retired to Florence, where he was
welcomed and entertained by Alessandro. In return for favours Lorenzo,
nicknamed in Florence "_Lorenzino_," "Lorenzo the Little," became useful
to the Duke and appointed himself spy-in-chief of the Florentine exiles.
His studious character and his literary talent endowed him with another
and a worthier sobriquet "_Filosofo_," and he carried out the role by
dressing as a Greek and living as a sybarite. Devoted to the study of
the classics and encouraged by his sensuous tutor, Giovanni Francesco
Zeffi, when not engaged in vulgar orgies, he translated Plato and other
writers, and even composed a comedy, which he called _L'Aridosio_.

Lorenzino entered fully into the Duke's life of profligacy and became
his inseparable companion. Both of them admired physical charms and
indulged in all physical passions: they set a base fashion in Florence,
which degraded her men and women. They habitually made lewd jokes of
everything human and divine, and were noted for their cruelty to
animals. If Alessandro became execrated as "The Tyrant and Ravisher of
Florence," Lorenzino was scouted as "A monster and a miracle," and his
depreciative nickname underwent a new spelling--"_Lorenzaccio_,"--
"Lorenzo the Terrible!"

* * * * *

Satiety of excesses produced a revulsion of feeling between the two
debauchees. Alessandro began to show irritation at his companion's
freedom. The latter refused to be corrected, and into his mind came
once more the inspiration of classical heroes of liberty and foes of
oppression. Why should he not be a Florentine "Brutus," and have his
name engraved upon the pinnacle of fame as the "Saviour of his Country!"
Lorenzino studied and studied well the part he now set himself to play.

Not a word did he breathe to man or woman of what was paramount in his
mind, and he made not the slightest difference in his intercourse with
Alessandro--indeed, he drew himself to him more intimately than ever.
The Carnival of 1536 saw the maddest of all mad scenes, and everything
and everybody ran wild riot. Disguised as country minstrels and mounted
upon broken-down donkeys, the two comrades rode about the city, paying
visits to their various mistresses and flatterers, and playing practical
jokes upon the respectable citizens they encountered.

Returning one evening, weary with their follies,