party to it--Names of the conspirators--The conspirators make
many ineffectual attempts to kill Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici--The
final arrangement--Order of the conspiracy.

This book, commencing between two conspiracies, the one at Milan already
narrated, the other yet to be recorded, it would seem appropriate, and
in accordance with our usual custom, were we to treat of the nature and
importance of these terrible demonstrations. This we should willingly do
had we not discussed the matter elsewhere, or could it be comprised in
few words. But requiring much consideration, and being already noticed
in another place, it will be omitted, and we shall proceed with our
narrative. The government of the Medici having subdued all its avowed
enemies in order to obtain for that family undivided authority, and
distinguish them from other citizens in their relation to the rest,
found it necessary to subdue those who secretly plotted against them.
While Medici contended with other families, their equals in authority
and reputation, those who envied their power were able to oppose them
openly without danger of being suppressed at the first demonstration of
hostility; for the magistrates being free, neither party had occasion to
fear, till one or other of them was overcome. But after the victory of
1466, the government became so entirely centred in the Medici, and
they acquired so much authority, that discontented spirits were obliged
either to suffer in silence, or, if desirous to destroy them, to attempt
it in secrecy, and by clandestine means; which plots rarely succeed and
most commonly involve the ruin of those concerned in them, while they
frequently contribute to the aggrandizement of those against whom they
are directed. Thus the prince of a city attacked by a conspiracy, if
not slain like the duke of Milan (which seldom happens), almost always
attains to a greater degree of power, and very often has his good
disposition perverted to evil. The proceedings of his enemies give him
cause for fear; fear suggests the necessity of providing for his
own safety, which involves the injury of others; and hence arise
animosities, and not unfrequently his ruin. Thus these conspiracies
quickly occasion the destruction of their contrivers, and, in time,
inevitably injure their primary object.

Italy, as we have seen above, was divided into two factions; the pope
and the king on one side; on the other, the Venetians, the duke, and the