omed to such troubles; but it was
the cause of his death. On the following night he was attacked with high
fever, which increased so rapidly that the doctors saw it must prove
fatal. Castruccio, therefore, called Pagolo Guinigi to him, and
addressed him as follows:

"If I could have believed that Fortune would have cut me off in the
midst of the career which was leading to that glory which all my
successes promised, I should have laboured less, and I should have
left thee, if a smaller state, at least with fewer enemies and perils,
because I should have been content with the governorships of Lucca and
Pisa. I should neither have subjugated the Pistoians, nor outraged the
Florentines with so many injuries. But I would have made both these
peoples my friends, and I should have lived, if no longer, at least more
peacefully, and have left you a state without a doubt smaller, but one
more secure and established on a surer foundation. But Fortune, who
insists upon having the arbitrament of human affairs, did not endow me
with sufficient judgment to recognize this from the first, nor the time
to surmount it. Thou hast heard, for many have told thee, and I have
never concealed it, how I entered the house of thy father whilst yet a
boy--a stranger to all those ambitions which every generous soul should
feel--and how I was brought up by him, and loved as though I had been
born of his blood; how under his governance I learned to be valiant and
capable of availing myself of all that fortune, of which thou hast been
witness. When thy good father came to die, he committed thee and all his
possessions to my care, and I have brought thee up with that love, and
increased thy estate with that care, which I was bound to show. And in
order that thou shouldst not only possess the estate which thy father
left, but also that which my fortune and abilities have gained, I have
never married, so that the love of children should never deflect my mind
from that gratitude which I owed to the children of thy father. Thus I
leave thee a vast estate, of which I am well content, but I am deeply
concerned, inasmuch as I leave it thee unsettled and insecure. Thou hast
the city of Lucca on thy hands, which will never rest contented under
they government. Thou hast also Pisa, where the men are of nature
changeable and unreliable, who, although they may be sometimes held
in subjection, yet they will ever disdain to serve under a Lucchese.
Pistoia is also di