to piece it out with
subordinate machinery, cumbrous, difficult to manage, ill-adapted to
the original structure. Each limb of this subordinate machinery,
moreover, was a _point d'appui_ for insidious and self-seeking party
leaders.

Florence, in the middle of the fourteenth century, was a vast beehive
of industry. Distinctions of rank among burghers, qualified to vote
and hold office, were theoretically unknown. Highly educated men, of
more than princely wealth, spent their time in shops and
counting-houses, and trained their sons to follow trades. Military
service at this period was abandoned by the citizens; they preferred
to pay mercenary troops for the conduct of their wars. Nor was there,
as in Venice, any outlet for their energies upon the seas. Florence
had no navy, no great port--she only kept a small fleet for the
protection of her commerce. Thus the vigour of the commonwealth was
concentrated on itself; while the influence of the citizens, through
their affiliated trading-houses, correspondents, and agents, extended
like a network over Europe. In a community of this kind it was natural
that wealth--rank and titles being absent--should alone confer
distinction. Accordingly we find that out of the very bosom of the
people a new plutocratic aristocracy begins to rise. The Grandi are
no more; but certain families achieve distinction by their riches,
their numbers, their high spirit, and their ancient place of honour in
the State. These nobles of the purse obtained the name of _Popolani
Nobili_; and it was they who now began to play at high stakes for the
supreme power. In all the subsequent vicissitudes of Florence every
change takes place by intrigue and by clever manipulation of the
political machine. Recourse is rarely had to violence of any kind, and
the leaders of revolutions are men of the yard-measure, never of the
sword. The despotism to which the republic eventually succumbed was no
less commercial than the democracy had been. Florence in the days of
her slavery remained a _Popolo_.

VI

The opening of the second half of the fourteenth century had been
signalised by the feuds of two great houses, both risen from the
people. These were the Albizzi and the Ricci. At this epoch there had
been a formal closing of the lists of burghers;--henceforth no new
families who might settle in the city could claim the franchise, vote
in the assemblies, or hold magistracies. The Guelf College used their
old en