where a new Gonfalonier, Francesco
Carducci, furiously opposed to the Medici, and attached to the
Piagnoni party, now ruled. On September 4th the Prince of Orange
appeared before the walls, and opened the memorable siege. It lasted
eight months, at the end of which time, betrayed by their generals,
divided among themselves, and worn out with delays, the Florentines
capitulated. Florence was paid as compensation for the insult offered
to the pontiff in the sack of Rome.

The long yoke of the Medici had undermined the character of the
Florentines. This, their last glorious struggle for liberty, was but a
flash in the pan--a final flare-up of the dying lamp. The city was not
satisfied with slavery; but it had no capacity for united action. The
Ottimati were egotistic and jealous of the people. The Palleschi
desired to restore the Medici at any price--some of them frankly
wishing for a principality, others trusting that the old
quasi-republican government might still be reinstated. The Red
Republicans, styled Libertini and Arrabbiati, clung together in blind
hatred of the Medicean party; but they had no further policy to guide
them. The Piagnoni, or Frateschi, stuck to the memory of Savonarola,
and believed that angels would descend to guard the battlements when
human help had failed. These enthusiasts still formed the true nerve
of the nation--the class that might have saved the State, if salvation
had been possible. Even as it was, the energy of their fanaticism
prolonged the siege until resistance seemed no longer physically
possible. The hero developed by the crisis was Francesco Ferrucci, a
plebeian who had passed his youth in manual labour, and who now
displayed rare military genius. He fell fighting outside the walls of
Florence. Had he commanded the troops from the beginning, and remained
inside the city, it is just possible that the fate of the war might
have been less disastrous. As it was, Malatesta Baglioni, the
Commander-in-Chief, turned out an arrant scoundrel. He held secret
correspondence with Clement and the Prince of Orange. It was he who
finally sold Florence to her foes, 'putting on his head,' as the Doge
of Venice said before the Senate, 'the cap of the biggest traitor upon
record.'

XXVII

What remains of Florentine history may be briefly told. Clement, now
the undisputed arbiter of power and honour in the city, chose
Alessandro de' Medici to be prince. Alessandro was created Duke of
Civita di