of the
city. This, as it seems to me, is the one good deed Savonarola did for
Florence.

But the people still believed in him, though he turned the whole life of
the city into a sort of religious carnival. Now, if Lorenzo had kept the
people quiet with songs, Savonarola was equally successful with hymns.
"Viva Cristo e la Vergine Maria, nostra regina," shouted the
people,--merchants, friars, women, and children dancing before the
crucifix with olive boughs in their hands. "On 27th March 1496, which
was Palm Sunday, Fra Girolamo made a procession of children with olive
branches in their hands and crowns of olive on their heads and all
bore, too, a red cross. There were some five thousand boys, and a great
number of girls all dressed in white, then after came all the Ufici, and
all the guilds, and then all the men, and after all the women of the
city. There never was so great a procession," says Landucci. Indeed,
there was not a man nor a woman who did not join the company. "It was a
holy time, but it was short," says Landucci again, whose own children
were among "these holy and blessed companies."

Short indeed! The Italian League had been formed against France; only
Florence and Ferrara remained outside. If it were politics that had
taken Savonarola so high, it was to them he owed his fall. He denounced
all Italy, and not least Alexander VI, the vicious but very capable
Pope. When he began to denounce Rome he signed his own death; her hour
was not yet come. "I announce to you, Italy and Rome, the Lord will come
out of His place.... I tell you, Italy and Rome, the Lord will tread you
down. I have commanded penance, yet you are worse and worse.... Soon all
priests, friars, bishops, cardinals, and great masters shall be trampled
down." It was a brave denunciation, and if it were unjust, what was
justice to one who had made Jesus King of Florence and established
himself as His Vicegerent.

The Pope excommunicated him: the factions in Florence--the Arrabbiati,
the Compagnacci, the Palleschi--rejoiced; yet the people he had led so
long seemed inclined to support him. Then came the plague, and then the
discovery of a plot to bring back Piero. Well, Savonarola began to
preach again; but he was beaten. Many would not go to hear him, of whom
Landucci was one, because of the excommunication.[100] And at last
Savonarola himself seems to have seen the end. "If I am deceived, Christ
Thou hast deceived me," he says and at last he