lly at dice, swore confoundedly, and
showed no respect for religion."

Confident in the general support of all the members of his family, in
any demonstration against the hated Medici, he took into his personal
confidence his brother, Giacopo de' Salviati--"an obscure, sordid
man"--and his nephew, Giacopo--"a wastrel and a fanatical
anti-Medicean."

Among the trustworthy Florentine confederates the Archbishop enrolled
Giacopo, son of the famous scholar, Poggio Gucchio de' Bracciolini,
originally a protege of Lorenzo, but "dismissed his service for
insolence and rapacity"; Giovanni Perugino, of San Gimignano, a
physician attached to Cavaliere Giacopo's household; Giovanni Domenico,
a bridle-maker and athlete, but "an idle sort of fellow"; and Napoleone
de' Franzesi, a friend of Guglielmo de' Pazzi, Lorenzo's brother-in-law.
Another adherent was Messer Giovanni da Pisa, a notary, but "a factious
and bad man."

Before leaving Rome, Francesco de' Pazzi and the Archbishop had agreed
with Count Girolamo de' Riari to engage the services of two desperadoes
in the pay of the Pope--Bernardo Bandino of the Florentine family of
Baroncelli, "a reckless and a brutal man and a bankrupt to boot," and
Amerigo de' Corsi, "the renegade son of a worthy father,"--Messer
Bernardo de' Corsi of the ancient Florentine house of that ilk. Two
ill-living priests were also added to the roll of the conspirators
--Frate Antonio, son of Gherardo de' Maffei of Volterra, and Frate
Stefano, son of Niccolo Piovano da Bagnore. The former was exasperated
against Lorenzo for the reckless sack of Volterra, and because he had
taken possession of a valuable alum-pit belonging to his family. The
latter was _Vicario_ of Monte Murlo, an upstart Papal precis-writer,
whose family was plebeian and employed upon Pazzi property in that
locality; he was "a man steeped in crime and a creature of Cavaliere
Giacopo de' Pazzi."

So many having been admitted into the secret of the conspiracy, it
became a matter of urgent importance that no delay should arise in the
fulfilment of the design; the fear of espionage and leakage was ever
present to the minds of the leaders. But what to do, and where, and how,
baffled all their ingenuity. At last a lead came, quite unexpectedly
from Sixtus himself.

At Pisa was a youth, studying law and philosophy--Raffaelle Sansoni--the
son of Count Girolamo's only sister, just sixteen years of age, and
"very tender in the heart of the Pop