going to
attack a Guelphic city, that had always been friendly to the Florentine
people, and had frequently, at great hazard, received the Guelphs into
her bosom when they were expelled from their own country. That in the
history of the past there was not an instance, while Lucca was free, of
her having done an injury to the Florentines; and that if they had been
injured by her enslavers, as formerly by Castruccio, and now by the
present governor, the fault was not in the city, but in her tyrant.
That if they could assail the latter without detriment to the people,
he should have less scruple, but as this was impossible, he could
not consent that a city which had been friendly to Florence should be
plundered of her wealth. However, as it was usual at present to pay
little or no regard either to equity or injustice, he would consider the
matter solely with reference to the advantage of Florence. He thought
that what could not easily be attended by pernicious consequences might
be esteemed useful, but he could not imagine how an enterprise should
be called advantageous in which the evils were certain and the utility
doubtful. The certain evils were the expenses with which it would be
attended; and these, he foresaw, would be sufficiently great to alarm
even a people that had long been in repose, much more one wearied, as
they were, by a tedious and expensive war. The advantage that might be
gained was the acquisition of Lucca, which he acknowledged to be great;
but the hazards were so enormous and immeasurable, as in his opinion
to render the conquest quite impossible. He could not induce himself to
believe that the Venetians, or Filippo, would willingly allow them to
make the acquisition; for the former only consented in appearance, in
order to avoid the semblance of ingratitude, having so lately, with
Florentine money, acquired such an extent of dominion. That as regarded
the duke, it would greatly gratify him to see them involved in new wars
and expenses; for, being exhausted and defeated on all sides, he might
again assail them; and that if, after having undertaken it, their
enterprise against Lucca were to prove successful, and offer them the
fullest hope of victory, the duke would not want an opportunity of
frustrating their labors, either by assisting the Lucchese secretly
with money, or by apparently disbanding his own troops, and then sending
them, as if they were soldiers of fortune, to their relief. He therefore