or ill-fortune the town was not taken. But
whatever the cause of this failure, Messer Giovanni had the blame; and
the rumour ran that he had been bribed by the people of Lucca. Which
calumny being fostered by his enemies, brought Messer Giovanni to very
verge of despair; and though to clear himself he would willingly have
given himself up to the Captain of Justice he found he could not, there
being no provision in the laws of the republic which allowed of his
doing so. Hence arose the bitterest hostility between the friends of
Messer Giovanni, who were mostly of the old nobility (_grandi_), and
those who sought to reform the government of Florence; and from this and
the like causes, the affair grew to such dimensions as to bring about
the downfall of our republic.

Manlius Capitolinus, then, was a calumniator, not an accuser; and in
their treatment of him the Romans showed how calumniators should be
dealt with; by which I mean, that they should be forced to become
accusers; and if their accusation be proved true, should be rewarded, or
at least not punished, but if proved false should be punished as Manlius
was.

CHAPTER IX.--_That to give new Institutions to a Commonwealth, or to
reconstruct old Institutions on an entirely new basis, must be the work
of one Man_.

It may perhaps be thought that I should not have got so far into the
history of Rome, without some mention of those who gave that city its
institutions, and saying something of these institutions themselves, so
far as they relate to religion and war. As I have no wish to keep those
who would know my views on these matters in suspense, I say at once,
that to many it might seem of evil omen that the founder of a civil
government like Romulus, should first have slain his brother, and
afterwards have consented to the death of Titus Tatius the Sabine, whom
he had chosen to be his colleague in the kingship; since his countrymen,
if moved by ambition and lust of power to inflict like injuries on any
who opposed their designs, might plead the example of their prince. This
view would be a reasonable one were we to disregard the object which
led Romulus to put those men to death. But we must take it as a rule
to which there are very few if any exceptions, that no commonwealth or
kingdom ever has salutary institutions given it from the first or has
its institutions recast in an entirely new mould, unless by a single
person. On the contrary, it must be from one ma