d, and
within a few hours he was a corpse. He was succeeded by Cardinal Cybo, a
warm friend toward the Medici, and one who had such a profound admiration
for the genius of Lorenzo in statecraft that he seldom took any step
without consulting him, though unfortunately he did not always follow the
Magnifico's advice.

If no one else reaped honor and glory from this Ferrarese war, Lorenzo
undoubtedly did so. By both sides the fact was admitted that he had acted
throughout as a far-seeing, sagacious diplomatist, who, while giving
preeminence, as was natural, to the welfare of his own state, had sought
to conserve the cause of letters, even amid the turmoil incident upon the
collision of political interests. He had proved the friend even of the
enemies of his own country, when once they had passed from the scene
of conflict, as, for example, when he dared Girolamo Riario to raise a
finger in the direction of dispossessing the son of the Pope's general,
Ruberto Malatesta, of his Rimini estates. He was the friend of the
oppressed everywhere, and in more cases than one his powerful protection
saved the children of his friends from being robbed by powerful
relatives. This connection between Florence, Naples, Milan, Rome, and
Ferrara tended to the promotion of intellectual intercourse between
them. As printing was now being briskly prosecuted all over Northern and
Central Italy, the interchange of literature went on ceaselessly among
them.

This, however, was Lorenzo's last great war. True, he was implicated in
the prolonged quarrel between the papacy and King Ferrante of Naples, yet
it was more as a mediator between the two antagonists than as the ally
of the last-named that he took part in it; although, as Armstrong points
out, he paid for the services of Trivulsio and four hundred cross-bowmen,
that by enabling the Neapolitans to check San Severino, the leader of the
papal-Venetian troops, he might induce Innocent VIII to lose heart and
retire from the struggle.

Lorenzo, during the last six years of his life, or, to speak more
definitely, after the peace of Bagnolo, had become in Italian, as he was
rapidly becoming in European, politics the master-spirit that inspired
the moves on the diplomatic chess-board. In the mind of the historical
student whose attention is directed to this period, admiration and wonder
go hand-in-hand as we contemplate the marvellous sagacity and prevision
of the man, together with the skill wherew