e troubled reign of Julius II. he kept very
quiet, cementing his connections with powerful men in Rome, but making
no effort to regain his hold on Florence. Now the moment for striking
a decisive blow had come. After the battle of Ravenna in 1512, the
French were driven out of Italy, and the Sforzas returned to Milan;
the Spanish troops, under the Viceroy Cardona, remained masters of the
country. Following the camp of these Spaniards, Giovanni de' Medici
entered Tuscany in August, and caused the restoration of the Medici
to be announced in Florence. The people, assembled by Soderini,
resolved to resist to the uttermost. No foreign army should force them
to receive the masters whom they had expelled. Yet their courage
failed on August 29th, when news reached them of the capture and the
sack of Prato. Prato is a sunny little city a few miles distant from
the walls of Florence, famous for the beauty of its women, the
richness of its gardens, and the grace of its buildings. Into this gem
of cities the savage soldiery of Spain marched in the bright autumnal
weather, and turned the paradise into a hell. It is even now
impossible to read of what they did in Prato without shuddering.[16]
Cruelty and lust, sordid greed for gold, and cold delight in
bloodshed, could go no further. Giovanni de' Medici, by nature mild
and voluptuous, averse to violence of all kinds, had to smile
approval, while the Spanish Viceroy knocked thus with mailed hand for
him at the door of Florence. The Florentines were paralysed with
terror. They deposed Soderini and received the Medici. Giovanni and
Giuliano entered their devastated palace in the Via Larga, abolished
the Grand Council, and dealt with the republic as they listed.

XXII

There was no longer any medium in Florence possible between either
tyranny or some such government as the Medici had now destroyed. The
State was too rotten to recover even the modified despotism of
Lorenzo's days. Each transformation had impaired some portion of its
framework, broken down some of its traditions, and sowed new seeds of
egotism in citizens who saw all things round them change but
self-advantage. Therefore Giovanni and Giuliano felt themselves secure
in flattering the popular vanity by an empty parade of the old
institutions. They restored the Signory and the Gonfalonier, elected
for intervals of two months by officers appointed for this purpose by
the Medici. Florence had the show of a free governmen