ly ask us;
for neither in your prosperity nor adversity have you clearly perceived
our motives. You have not observed, that those whose deeds have once
incurred our hatred, can never become entitled to our regard; nor can
those who have once merited our affection ever after absolutely cancel
their claim. Our attachment to your most serene Signory is well known to
you all, for you have often seen Lombardy filled with our forces and
our money for your assistance. Our hereditary enmity to Filippo and his
house is universally known, and it is impossible that love or hatred,
strengthened by the growth of years, can be eradicated from our minds
by any recent act either of kindness or neglect. We have always thought,
and are still of the same opinion, that we might now remain neutral,
greatly to the duke's satisfaction, and with little hazard to ourselves;
for if by your ruin he were to become lord of Lombardy, we should still
have sufficient influence in Italy in free us from any apprehension on
our own account; for every increase of power and territory augments
that animosity and envy, from which arise wars and the dismemberment
of states. We are also aware what heavy expenses and imminent perils we
should avoid, by declining to involve ourselves in these disputes;
and how easily the field of battle may be transferred from Lombardy to
Tuscany, by our interference in your behalf. Yet all these apprehensions
are at once overborne by our ancient affection for the senate and people
of Venice, and we have resolved to come to your relief with the same
zeal with which we should have armed in our own defense, had we been
attacked. Therefore, the senate of Florence, judging it primarily
necessary to relieve Verona and Brescia, and thinking this impossible
without the count, have sent me, in the first instance, to persuade
him to pass into Lombardy, and carry on the war wherever it may be most
needful; for you are aware he is under no obligation to cross the Po. To
induce him to do so, I have advanced such arguments as are suggested by
the circumstances themselves, and which would prevail with us. He, being
invincible in arms, cannot be surpassed in courtesy, and the liberality
he sees the Florentines exercise toward you, he has resolved to outdo;
for he is well aware to what dangers Tuscany will be exposed after
his departure, and since we have made your affairs our primary
consideration, he has also resolved to make his own subservien