ambition. This view is confirmed by the Apology he wrote
and published for his act. It remains one of the most pregnant,
bold, and brilliant pieces of writing which we possess in favour of
tyrannicide from that epoch of insolent crime and audacious rhetoric.
So energetic is the style, and so biting the invective of this
masterpiece, in which the author stabs a second time his victim, that
both Giordani and Leopardi affirmed it to be the only true monument of
eloquence in the Italian language. If thirst for glory was Lorenzino's
principal incentive, immediate glory was his guerdon. He escaped that
same night with Scoronconcolo and Freccia to Bologna, where he stayed
to dress his thumb, and then passed forward to Venice. Filippo Strozzi
there welcomed him as the new Brutus, gave him money, and promised to
marry his two sons to the two sisters of the tyrant-killer. Poems were
written and published by the most famous men of letters, including
Benedetto Varchi and Francesco Maria Molsa, in praise of the Tuscan
Brutus, the liberator of his country from a tyrant. A bronze medal
was struck bearing his name, with a profile copied from Michelangelo's
bust of Brutus. On the obverse are two daggers and a cup, and the date
viii. id. Jan.

The immediate consequence of Alessandro's murder was the elevation
of Cosimo, son of Giovanni delle Bande Nere, and second cousin of
Lorenzino, to the duchy. At the ceremony of his investiture with
the ducal honours, Cosimo solemnly undertook to revenge Alessandro's
murder. In the following March he buried his predecessor with pomp
in San Lorenzo. The body was placed beside the bones of the Duke of
Urbino in the marble chest of Michelangelo, and here not many years
ago it was discovered. Soon afterwards Lorenzino was declared a rebel.
His portrait was painted according to old Tuscan precedent, head
downwards, and suspended by one foot, upon the wall of the fort built
by Alessandro. His house was cut in twain from roof to pavement, and
a narrow lane was driven through it, which received the title of
Traitor's Alley, _Chiasso del Traditore_. The price of four
thousand golden florins was put upon his head, together with the
further sum of one hundred florins per annum in perpetuity to be paid
to the murderer and his direct heirs in succession, by the Otto di
Balia. Moreover, the man who killed Lorenzino was to enjoy all civic
privileges; exemption from all taxes, ordinary and extraordinary; the
righ