cenzio Almeni,
a gentleman of Perugia, and, when the Duke was assassinated by Lorenzino
de' Medici, he performed the first charitable offices of the dead upon
the bleeding body. Moreover, young Almeni's father was a faithful friend
and confidant of Madonna Maria de' Salviati, the mother of Cosimo. In
consequence of the devotion of both father and son, Sforza was taken
into the household of the new Duke and eventually became his private
secretary.

With Duchess Eleanora, Sforza became a great favourite, for he was most
sympathetic and helpful in her schemes for the advancement and
protection of her Spanish proteges. Both Cosimo and his consort bestowed
many benefactions upon their faithful servitor. Among them was a
monopoly in the supply of fish from Perugia to Florence, a privilege
which put, upon the average, a good six hundred gold florins per annum
into Messer Sforza's pocket!

The Duke also conferred upon his fortunate and trusty counsellor
valuable property in the parish of San Piero a Quintole, a farm and
buildings at Fiesole, and lastly, in 1565, a very fertile estate at
Peccioli, originally the property of Piero de' Salviati.

Had Messer Sforza Almeni only been content with these opulent
benefactions, all might have gone well with him; but, alas, human
ambition and the interests of self lead good men often enough astray,
and the Duke's private secretary began to look for favours at the hands
of the heir to the Ducal throne, the Prince-Regent Francesco. In short,
he attempted to serve two masters.

With a view to obtain the good graces of Don Francesco, Almeni began a
system of betraying confidences of a strictly private and familiar
character. Blessed with the spirit of flattery, like all consummate
courtiers, he conceived it to be a stroke of excellent personal policy
to purvey for his Highness' appreciation or the reverse, his father's
intimate concerns.

He repeated the conversation the old Duke and he had held about Eleanora
degli Albizzi and her child, and advised the Prince, for his own
advantage, to inform his father that any steps he might take to advance
his _innamorata_ or their bastard, would be resented by him as Regent of
the Duchy. Apparently Almeni did not regard the young mother with
lenient eyes, but viewed her ascendency over the infatuated Duke with
disfavour, as offering rivalry to his own position.

Francesco, smarting under his father's strictures in respect to his
amours with Bian