ontributed in no small measure
to his ruin.

Lorenzino left the Duke upon the bed, and went at once for
Scoronconcolo. He told him that the enemy was caught, and bade him
only mind the work he had to do. 'That will I do,' the bravo answered,
'even though it were the Duke himself.' 'You've hit the mark,' said
Lorenzino with a face of joy; 'he cannot slip through our fingers.
Come!' So they mounted to the bedroom, and Lorenzino, knowing where
the Duke was laid, cried: 'Sir, are you asleep?' and therewith ran
him through the back. Alessandro was sleeping, or pretending to
sleep, face downwards, and the sword passed through his kidneys and
diaphragm. But it did not kill him. He slipped from the bed, and
seized a stool to parry the next blow. Scoronconcolo now stabbed him
in the face, while Lorenzino forced him back upon the bed; and then
began a hideous struggle. In order to prevent his cries, Lorenzino
doubled his fist into the Duke's mouth. Alessandro seized the thumb
between his teeth, and held it in a vice until he died. This disabled
Lorenzino, who still lay upon his victim's body, and Scoronconcolo
could not strike for fear of wounding his master. Between the writhing
couple he made, however, several passes with his sword, which only
pierced the mattress. Then he drew a knife and drove it into the
Duke's throat, and bored about till he had severed veins and windpipe.

IV.--THE FLIGHT OF LORENZINO DE' MEDICI

Alessandro was dead. His body fell to earth. The two murderers,
drenched with blood, lifted it up, and placed it on the bed, wrapped
in the curtains, as they had found him first. Then Lorenzino went to
the window, which looked out upon the Via Larga, and opened it to rest
and breathe a little air. After this he called for Scoronconcolo's
boy, Il Freccia, and bade him look upon the dead man. Il Freccia
recognised the Duke. But why Lorenzino did this, no one knew. It
seemed, as Varchi says, that, having planned the murder with great
ability, and executed it with daring, his good sense and good luck
forsook him. He made no use of the crime he had committed; and from
that day forward till his own assassination, nothing prospered with
him. Indeed, the murder of Alessandro appears to have been almost
motiveless, considered from the point of view of practical politics.
Varchi assumes that Lorenzino's burning desire of glory prompted the
deed; and when he had acquired the notoriety he sought, there was an
end to his