rsons, and our fortunes in his hands, and commended them to his good
faith, believing him to possess the soul, if not of a Florentine, at
least of a man. Your lordships will forgive us; for, unable to support
his cruelties, we are compelled to speak. Your commissary has nothing of
the man but the shape, nor of a Florentine but the name; a more deadly
pest, a more savage beast, a more horrid monster never was imagined in
the human mind; for, having assembled us in our church under pretense
of wishing to speak with us, he made us prisoners. He then burned and
destroyed the whole valley, carried off our property, ravaged every
place, destroyed everything, violated the women, dishonored the virgins,
and dragging them from the arms of their mothers, gave them up to the
brutality of his soldiery. If by any injury to the Florentine people we
merited such treatment, or if he had vanquished us armed in our defense,
we should have less reason for complaint; we should have accused
ourselves, and thought that either our mismanagement or our arrogance
had deservedly brought the calamity upon us; but after having freely
presented ourselves to him unarmed, to be robbed and plundered with such
unfeeling barbarity, is more than we can bear. And though we might
have filled Lombardy with complaints and charges against this city, and
spread the story of our misfortunes over the whole of Italy, we did
not wish to slander so just and pious a republic, with the baseness and
perfidy of one wicked citizen, whose cruelty and avarice, had we known
them before our ruin was complete, we should have endeavored to satiate
(though indeed they are insatiable), and with one-half of our property
have saved the rest. But the opportunity is past; we are compelled to
have recourse to you, and beg that you will succor the distresses of
your subjects, that others may not be deterred by our example from
submitting themselves to your authority. And if our extreme distress
cannot prevail with you to assist us, be induced, by your fear of the
wrath of God, who has seen his temple plundered and burned, and his
people betrayed in his bosom." Having said this they threw themselves
on the ground, crying aloud, and praying that their property and their
country might be restored to them; and that if the Signory could not
give them back their honor, they would, at least, restore husbands to
their wives, and children to their fathers. The atrocity of the affair
having alre