ct and circumspection, and of course it produced the
greatest ill-will and resentment against him and his administration in
every member of the proscribed family.

The situation became greatly embittered when, in 1477, Lorenzo
interfered in a law-suit which concerned the marriage dower and
inheritance of Beatrice, the daughter of Giovanni Buonromeo. By
Florentine law the daughter should have inherited the fortune without
demur, under the express will of her father, who died intestate; but, at
Lorenzo's command, the estate was passed on to Beatrice's cousin, Carlo
Buonromeo, who was the winner of the second prize in Lorenzo's _Giostra_
of 1468. This decision was in direct opposition to Giuliano de' Medici's
opinion, and he did all he could to reassure Giovanni de' Pazzi,
Guglielmo's brother, and Beatrice's husband, of friendship and
confidence.

These were not the only incidents which followed one another at the
parting of the ways of the two families, but the affair of Giovanni and
Beatrice was resented with peculiar bitterness by all the Pazzi. "Hence
arose," as Francesco de' Guicciardini has testified, "the wronging of
the Pazzi!"

In Francesco, the youngest of the brethren, was exhibited the most
violent animosity and hatred. Blessed with superabundant self-conceit,
which went so far as to cause him to spend hours a day having his
unusually light-coloured hair dressed at the barber's and his face
salved and puffed at the apothecary's to conceal his muddy complexion,
he was reckoned, in the Mercato Nuovo, as little better than an
ill-conditioned _braggadoccio_! His shortness of stature he sought to
atone for by his accentuation of the Florentine pout and the Tuscan
strut--he was well known, too, for his contemptuous jokes at the expense
of others.

Francesco denounced Lorenzo and his Government with unmeasured scorn,
and, careless of restraint, threatened that "he would be even with him,
even though it cost him his life." Macchiavelli says: "He was the most
unscrupulous of his family." "A man of blood," Agnolo Poliziano called
him, "who, when he meditated any design, went straight to his goal,
regardless of morality, religion, reputation and consequences."

Early in March he quitted Florence suddenly, giving out that his
presence was required at Rome in connection with the affairs of the
Pazzi bank. To say that his departure was a relief to Lorenzo is but
half the truth, for he was greatly perturbed with respect