nso. He had undertaken, it will be remembered, to
hold the passes of the Apennines upon this side. To have embarrassed the
French troops among those limestone mountains, thinly forested with pine
and chestnut-trees, and guarded here and there with ancient fortresses,
would have been a matter of no difficulty. With like advantages 2,000
Swiss troops during their wars of independence would have laughed to
scorn the whole forces of Burgundy and Austria. But Piero, a feeble and
false tyrant, preoccupied with Florentine factions, afraid of Lucca, and
disinclined to push forward into the territory of the Sforza, had as yet
done nothing when the news arrived that Sarzana was on the point of
capitulation. In this moment of peril he rode as fast as horses could
carry him to the French camp, besought an interview with Charles, and
then and there delivered up to him the keys of Sarzana and its citadel,
together with those of Pietra Santa, Librafratta, Pisa, and Leghorn. Any
one who has followed the sea-coast between Pisa and Sarzana can
appreciate the enormous value of these concessions to the invader. They
relieved him of the difficulty of forcing his way along a narrow belt of
land, which is hemmed in on one side by the sea and on the other by the
highest and most abrupt mountain range in Italy. To have done this in
the teeth of a resisting army and beneath the walls of hostile castles
would have been all but impossible. As it was, Piero cut the Gordian
knot by his incredible cowardice, and for himself gained only ruin and
dishonor. Charles, the foe against whom he had plotted with Alfonso and
Alexander, laughed in his face and marched at once into Pisa. The
Florentines, whom he had hitherto engaged in ah unpopular policy, now
rose in fury, expelled him from the city, sacked his palace, and erased
from their memory the name of Medici except for execration. The
unsuccessful tyrant, who had proved a traitor to his allies, to his
country, and to himself, saved his life by flying first to Bologna and
thence to Venice, where he remained in a sort of polite captivity--safe,
but a slave, until the Doge and his council saw which way affairs would
tend.

On the 9th of November Florence after a tyranny of fifty years, and Pisa
after the servitude of a century, recovered their liberties and were
able to reconstitute republican governments. But the situation of the
two states was very different. The Florentines had never lost the name
of li