nce her lover,
Luigi degli Alamanni, and to marry Leonardo de' Ginori--a disreputable
spendthrift and gambler, who fled to Naples to escape his creditors--she
attracted the notice of Duke Alessandro. She was as accomplished as she
was beautiful and very commanding in appearance, the mother of
Bartolommeo, the giant manhood model of Giovanni da Bologna for his
famous "Youth, Manhood, and Age," miscalled "The Rape of the Sabines,"
in the Loggia de' Lanzi.

At the rendezvous Lorenzino slapped Michaele upon the shoulder.
"Brother," he said, "the moment has arrived. I have locked my enemy in
my room. Come on, now is your opportunity." "March!" was the ruffian's
terse reply.

"Don't fear to strike," said Lorenzino, as they strode on side by side.
"Strike hard, and if the man should seek to defend himself, strike still
harder. I trust you."

"Never you fear, my lord, were the man to swear he was the Duke or the
Devil, it matters not. Strike I will, and hard."

Mounting the stairs quietly, Lorenzino opened the door of his apartment
softly, and there lay Alessandro, fast asleep upon the bed, with his
face to the wall. Coward, as he was wont to call himself, he no longer
feared to slay the "Tyrant of his People," but whipping out his sword,
not waiting for Michaele's attack, he thrust it right through the Duke's
back!

With a frantic yell Alessandro stumbled upon the floor. "Traitor!
assassin!" he screamed. Then, turning his eyes full upon Lorenzino, he
faintly added: "This from thee--my lover!"

Alessandro made as though to defend himself, and with the red blood
gushing from his back, he threw himself upon his murderer and they
struggled on the floor.

Michaele was powerless to strike: his weapon might have slashed his
master. Alessandro, with dying energy, seized the hand of Lorenzino and
bit two of his fingers to the bone, so that the miscreant yelled with
agony. Then they parted--Lorenzino to bind up his broken bones and
Alessandro to staunch his wound. "At him," cried the madman, and
Michaele struck at him with his sword, cutting off his right cheek and
his nose, and then he got his dagger at his throat, and turned it round
in the gaping wound, until he nearly decapitated his unhappy victim.
Again Lorenzino heaved at him with his reeking weapon and fell upon him,
covering himself with blood, and bit his face in savage rage! Alessandro
fell away and lay, breathing heavily in a fearsome heap. Then Lorenzino,
chucklin