ne of the conspirators
to be seized; whereupon the rest at once armed themselves and deprived
him of his government. Guglielmo, again, being commissary in the Val
di Chiana in the year 1501, and learning that a conspiracy was being
hatched in Arezzo to take the town from the Florentines and give it over
to the Vitelli, repaired thither with all haste; and without providing
himself with the necessary forces or giving a thought to the strength of
the conspirators, on the advice of the bishop, his son, had one of them
arrested. Which becoming known to the others, they forthwith rushed to
arms, and taking the town from the Florentines, made Guglielmo their
prisoner. Where, however, conspiracies are weak, they may and should be
put down without scruple or hesitation.

Two methods, somewhat opposed to one another, which have occasionally
been followed in dealing with conspiracies, are in no way to be
commended. One of these was that adopted by the Duke of Athens, of whom
I have just now spoken, who to have it thought that he confided in the
goodwill of the Florentines, caused a certain man who gave information
of a plot against him, to be put to death. The other was that followed
by Dion the Syracusan, who, to sound the intentions of one whom he
suspected, arranged with Calippus, whom he trusted, to pretend to get up
a conspiracy against him. Neither of these tyrants reaped any advantage
from the course he followed. For the one discouraged informers and gave
heart to those who were disposed to conspire, the other prepared an easy
road to his own death, or rather was prime mover in a conspiracy against
himself. As the event showed. For Calippus having free leave to plot
against Dion, plotted to such effect, that he deprived him at once of
his State and life.

[Footnote 1: _Tac. Hist._ iv. 8.]

[Footnote 2: Ad generum Cereris sine caede et vulnere pauci
Descendunt reges, et sicca morte tiranni.
_Juv. Sat._ x. 112.]

CHAPTER VII.--_Why it is that changes from Freedom to Servitude, and
from Servitude to Freedom, are sometimes made without Bloodshed, but at
other times reek with Blood_.

Since we find from history that in the countless changes which have been
made from freedom to servitude and from servitude to freedom, sometimes
an infinite multitude have perished, while at others not a soul has
suffered (as when Rome made her change from kings to consuls, on which
occasion none was banished save Tarquin, and no harm