d be unshaken for all Mediceans,
and hence the fact that he had been a source of information to the
authorities must be wrapped in profound secrecy. Still, some odour of
the facts might escape in spite of precaution, and before Tito could
incur the unpleasant consequences of acting against his friends, he must
be assured of immunity from any prosecution as a Medicean, and from
deprivation of office for a year to come.

These propositions did not sound in the ear of Francesco Valori
precisely as they sound to us. Valori's mind was not intensely bent on
the estimation of Tito's conduct; and it _was_ intensely bent on
procuring an extreme sentence against the five prisoners. There were
sure to be immense efforts to save them; and it was to be wished (on
public grounds) that the evidence against them should be of the
strongest, so as to alarm all well-affected men at the dangers of
clemency. The character of legal proceedings at that time implied that
evidence was one of those desirable things which could only be come at
by foul means. To catch a few people and torture them into confessing
everybody's guilt was one step towards justice; and it was not always
easy to see the next, unless a traitor turned up. Lamberto dell'
Antella had been tortured in aid of his previous willingness to tell
more than he knew; nevertheless, additional and stronger facts were
desirable, especially against Bernardo del Nero, who, so far as appeared
hitherto, had simply refrained from betraying the late plot after having
tried in vain to discourage it; for the welfare of Florence demanded
that the guilt of Bernardo del Nero should be put in the strongest
light. So Francesco Valori zealously believed; and perhaps he was not
himself aware that the strength of his zeal was determined by his
hatred. He decided that Tito's proposition ought to be accepted, laid
it before his colleagues without disclosing Tito's name, and won them
over to his opinion. Late in the day, Tito was admitted to an audience
of the Special Council, and produced a deep sensation among them by
revealing another plot for insuring the mastery of Florence to Piero de'
Medici, which was to have been carried into execution in the middle of
this very month of August. Documentary evidence on this subject would
do more than anything else to make the right course clear. He received
a commission to start for Siena by break of day; and, besides this, he
carried away with him fr