people below, with orders that when they
heard a noise they should make themselves masters of the entrance, while
himself, with the greater part of the Perugini, proceeded above, and
finding the Signory at dinner (for it was now late), was admitted
after a short delay, by Cesare Petrucci, the Gonfalonier of Justice. He
entered with only a few of his followers, the greater part of them being
shut up in the cancelleria into which they had gone, whose doors were so
contrived, that upon closing they could not be opened from either
side, without the key. The archbishop being with the gonfalonier, under
pretense of having something to communicate on the part of the pope,
addressed him in such an incoherent and hesitating manner, that the
gonfalonier at once suspected him, and rushing out of the chamber to
call assistance, found Jacopo di Poggio, whom he seized by the hair
of the head, and gave into the custody of his attendants. The Signory
hearing the tumult, snatched such arms as they could at the moment
obtain, and all who had gone up with the archbishop, part of them being
shut up, and part overcome with terror, were immediately slain or thrown
alive out of the windows of the palace, at which the archbishop, the
two Jacopi Salviati, and Jacopodi Poggio were hanged. Those whom the
archbishop left below, having mastered the guard and taken possession of
the entrance occupied all the lower floors, so that the citizens, who in
the uproar, hastened to the palace, were unable to give either advice or
assistance to the Signory.

Francesco de' Pazzi and Bernardo Bandini, perceiving Lorenzo's escape,
and the principal agent in the enterprise seriously wounded, became
immediately conscious of the imminent peril of their position. Bernardo,
using the same energy in his own behalf that had served him against the
Medici, finding all lost, saved himself by flight. Francesco, wounded as
he was, got to his house, and endeavored to get on horseback, for it had
been arranged they should ride through the city and call the people to
arms and liberty; but he found himself unable, from the nature of his
wound, and, throwing himself naked upon his bed, begged Jacopo de' Pazzi
to perform the part for which he was himself incapacitated. Jacopo,
though old and unaccustomed to such business, by way of making a last
effort, mounted his horse, and, with about a hundred armed followers,
collected without previous preparation, hastened to the piazza of