nother. But if
one party in a subject city be unfriendly to you, the consequence will
be that you will lose that city so soon as you are involved in war,
since it is impossible for you to hold a city where you have enemies
both within and without. Should the ruling power be a republic, there is
nothing so likely to corrupt its citizens and sow dissension among them,
as having to control a divided city. For as each faction in that city
will seek support and endeavour to make friends in a variety of corrupt
ways, two very serious evils will result: first, that the governed city
will never be contented with its governors, since there can be no good
government where you often change its form, adapting yourself to the
humours now of one party and now of another; and next, that the factious
spirit of the subject city is certain to infect your own republic. To
which Biondo testifies, when, in speaking of the citizens of Florence
and Pistoja, he says, "_In seeking to unite Pistoja the Florentines
themselves fell out_."[1] It is easy, therefore, to understand how much
mischief attends on such divisions. In the year 1501, when we lost
Arezzo, and when all the Val di Tevere and Val di Chiana were occupied
by the Vitelli and by Duke Valentino, a certain M. de Lant was sent by
the King of France to cause the whole of the lost towns to be restored
to the Florentines; who finding in all these towns men who came to him
claiming to be of the party of the _Marnocco_[2], greatly blamed this
distinction, observing, that if in France any of the king's subjects
were to say that he was of the king's party, he would be punished; since
the expression would imply that there was a party hostile to the king,
whereas it was his majesty's desire that all his subjects should be his
friends and live united without any distinction of party. But all these
mistaken methods and opinions originate in the weakness of rulers, who,
seeing that they cannot hold their States by their own strength and
valour, have recourse to like devices; which, if now and then in
tranquil times they prove of some slight assistance to them, in times of
danger are shown to be worthless.

[Footnote 1: _Flav. Blondri Hist._, dec. ii. lib. 9. Basle ed. 1559, p.
337]

[Footnote 2: The heraldic Lion of Florence.]

CHAPTER XXVIII.

_That a Republic must keep an eye on what its Citizens are about; since
often the seeds of a Tyranny lie hidden under a semblance of generous
de