The Tragedies of the Medici Part 8

Satiety of excesses produced a revulsion of feeling between the two debauchees. Alessandro began to show irritation at his companion's freedom. The latter refused to be corrected, and into his mind came once more the inspiration of cla.s.sical heroes of liberty and foes of oppression. Why should he not be a Florentine "Brutus," and have his name engraved upon the pinnacle of fame as the "Saviour of his Country!"

Lorenzino studied and studied well the part he now set himself to play.

Not a word did he breathe to man or woman of what was paramount in his mind, and he made not the slightest difference in his intercourse with Alessandro--indeed, he drew himself to him more intimately than ever.

The Carnival of 1536 saw the maddest of all mad scenes, and everything and everybody ran wild riot. Disguised as country minstrels and mounted upon broken-down donkeys, the two comrades rode about the city, paying visits to their various mistresses and flatterers, and playing practical jokes upon the respectable citizens they encountered.

Returning one evening, weary with their follies, they supped together at the Palazzo Medici, and then Lorenzino inquired how they were to spend the night.

"I shall go to bed," replied Alessandro, "for I am worn out."

"Caterina?" whispered Lorenzino.

Alessandro rose abruptly and said, "Lead on, Lorenzo, I will follow."

Seeing his valet and confidant, Giustiniano da Sesena, he said: "We are going to Signore Lorenzino's, but what shall I put on?" Giustiniano handed him a crimson silk dressing-gown, and asked him whether he would wear his sword and steel gauntlets, or whether his cane and his scented kid gloves would not be more suitable.

"Yes," the Duke replied, "toss me over my lovers' gloves, for I am about to see my lady!"

s.n.a.t.c.hing a cloak, lined with fur, and grasping a light sword in his hand, Alessandro left the palace by the garden wicket, followed by his valet and two secret guards, Giomo da Carpi, and an Hungarian wrestler nicknamed "Bobo."

Meanwhile Lorenzino had sought the street, and at the corner he found his usual attendant, Michaele del Tovallaccino, a soldier possessed of a splendid physique, combining the soft contour of Apollo and the brute force of Hercules. His comrades called him "Scoronconcolo," on account of his wild, l.u.s.tful nature. "He could kiss and bite," they said, "at the same time!"

"Michaele," said Lorenzino, "I want you to kill the man who is my greatest enemy."

"My lord," replied the ruffian, "I am at your service. Tell me the name of the fellow who has wronged you and I will kill him right off. I would kill Jesus Christ himself if he hated you!"

"Stay at your post and I will return for you presently," said Lorenzino, going on to his own house across the way.

In the Piazza San Marco he overtook Alessandro, who dismissed his attendants, and went on alone with his cousin. In Lorenzino's chamber was a good fire, and Alessandro, complaining of the heat, loosened his attire and removed his sword, handing it to Lorenzino, who deftly entangled the sash and belt in the hilt and placed it upon the bed.

"Where is Caterina?" inquired the Duke. "Why is she not here?"

"She is quite ready," was the reply, "and only awaits me to conduct her hither."

"Go at once and delay not!" cried Alessandro.

Locking the door from without, and putting the key in his pocket, Lorenzino hastened to Michaele.

This "Caterina" was Caterina Ginori, Lorenzino's mother's sister. Forced by her father, Paolo d'Antonio de' Soderini, to renounce her lover, Luigi degli Alamanni, and to marry Leonardo de' Ginori--a disreputable spendthrift and gambler, who fled to Naples to escape his creditors--she attracted the notice of Duke Alessandro. She was as accomplished as she was beautiful and very commanding in appearance, the mother of Bartolommeo, the giant manhood model of Giovanni da Bologna for his famous "Youth, Manhood, and Age," miscalled "The Rape of the Sabines,"

in the Loggia de' Lanzi.

At the rendezvous Lorenzino slapped Michaele upon the shoulder.

"Brother," he said, "the moment has arrived. I have locked my enemy in my room. Come on, now is your opportunity." "March!" was the ruffian's terse reply.

"Don't fear to strike," said Lorenzino, as they strode on side by side.

"Strike hard, and if the man should seek to defend himself, strike still harder. I trust you."

"Never you fear, my lord, were the man to swear he was the Duke or the Devil, it matters not. Strike I will, and hard."

Mounting the stairs quietly, Lorenzino opened the door of his apartment softly, and there lay Alessandro, fast asleep upon the bed, with his face to the wall. Coward, as he was wont to call himself, he no longer feared to slay the "Tyrant of his People," but whipping out his sword, not waiting for Michaele's attack, he thrust it right through the Duke's back!

With a frantic yell Alessandro stumbled upon the floor. "Traitor!

a.s.sa.s.sin!" he screamed. Then, turning his eyes full upon Lorenzino, he faintly added: "This from thee--my lover!"

Alessandro made as though to defend himself, and with the red blood gushing from his back, he threw himself upon his murderer and they struggled on the floor.

Michaele was powerless to strike: his weapon might have slashed his master. Alessandro, with dying energy, seized the hand of Lorenzino and bit two of his fingers to the bone, so that the miscreant yelled with agony. Then they parted--Lorenzino to bind up his broken bones and Alessandro to staunch his wound. "At him," cried the madman, and Michaele struck at him with his sword, cutting off his right cheek and his nose, and then he got his dagger at his throat, and turned it round in the gaping wound, until he nearly decapitated his unhappy victim.

Again Lorenzino heaved at him with his reeking weapon and fell upon him, covering himself with blood, and bit his face in savage rage! Alessandro fell away and lay, breathing heavily in a fearsome heap. Then Lorenzino, chuckling with fiendish glee, roared out, "See, Michaele, my brother, the wretch is dead!"

Raising the body of the still breathing Duke, his murderers threw it upon the bed and covered it with the sheets. Then Lorenzino opened a window and looked out upon the Via Larga, to see if anybody was about.

Not a soul was there. It was early morning, and by the new light of day he tore off a piece of paper and scribbled upon it, with Alessandro's blood, "_Vincit amor patriae laudumque immensa cupido_," and pinned it over Alessandro's heart!

Both he and Michaele washed their hands and their swords--their clothes they could not cleanse--and Lorenzino, having filled his pouch with the money and jewels he possessed, they picked up their cloaks and hats, and, locking the door behind them, departed. In the bas.e.m.e.nt they encountered Fiaccio, Lorenzino's faithful body-servant, groom and valet combined, and he was bidden to follow his master.

The three made their way with haste to the residence of Bishop Angelo Marzi, the chief custodian of the City Gates, of whom Lorenzino demanded post-horses, showing to the servant Alessandro's signet-ring, which he had pulled off his victim's finger. The Bishop made no demur, being well accustomed to the erratic ways of the cousins. They took the road to Bologna, where Lorenzino had the two broken fingers removed, and his hand dressed, and then on they posted without further halt.

Lorenzino made at once for the house of Filippo negli Strozzi, the leader of the exiled Florentines in that city, and rousing him from his slumbers, embraced him with emotion, and said: "See, this is the key of the chamber where lies the body of Alessandro. I have slain him. Look at my clothes, this blood is his, no more shall Florence suffer at his hands. Revenge is sweet, but freedom is sweeter!"

Filippo could scarcely believe the glad tidings, and surveyed his visitor from head to foot. Lorenzino, noting his hesitation, called Michaele into the room crying, "Here is Scoronconcolo the a.s.sa.s.sin, and I am Lorenzaccio the Terrible!"

"Thou art our Brutus, my Lord Lorenzino!" exclaimed Filippo, with tears running down his cheeks. "Tarry awhile, till I can summon our chief allies, and rest yourselves. Bravo! Bravissimo!"

Next day alarm spread through the Medici Palace when the Duke failed to make his appearance, especially as at noon he had summoned a meeting of his new Grand Council of Two Hundred. No one knew where he had gone.

Lorenzino was gone too, at least he did not make his usual early morning call. All the houses of their mistresses and other boon-companions were searched in vain, but apparently no one dreamt of calling at Lorenzino's, across the way. Probably, it was thought, the two had gone off to Cafogginolo--their favourite haunt.

Madonna Maria, Messer Jacopo de' Salviati's daughter, the widow of Giovanni de' Medici, "delle Bande Nere," who resided near Lorenzino, certainly heard loud cries which terrified her, but it was not an unusual occurrence. Lorenzino had, in his villainous scheme, devised a cunning decoy to accustom neighbours and pa.s.sers-by to noisy behaviour.

He had repeatedly gathered in his house groups of young men with swords, whom he instructed to cross their weapons as in serious self-defence, and to cry out "Murder!" "Help!" and such like.

The first intimation of the tragedy was furnished by Lorenzino's porter, who kept his keys--that of the bedchamber was missing and the door was locked! The man sought an interview with Cardinal Cibo, then in Florence, and his former master, and told him his fears. The door was, by his order, forced and then, of course, the terrible truth was made clear.

Under the pain of losing their heads, the Cardinal commanded absolute secrecy on the part of the domestics and guards who had looked upon that gruesome corpse. At the same time he ordered the game of "Saracino" to be played in the _Piazza_ close by, to remove the fears of a fast gathering crowd of citizens. When asked if he knew where the Duke was, he replied quite casually: "Oh, don't worry about the Duke, he's in bed of course, sleeping off the effects of last night's conviviality. He'll appear when he thinks fit. Go away and mind your own affairs."

Somehow or another at last the news leaked out that Alessandro was dead, and that Lorenzino had killed him. Cardinal Cibo convened the Council of Forty-eight to discuss the situation. To him full powers were accorded to administer the government for three days, until a settlement was reached. This decision was most unpopular with the citizens, who began to rise in opposition.

Just when another b.l.o.o.d.y revolution seemed imminent, Cosimo de' Medici, the young son of Giovanni "delle Bande Nere," rode into the city, accompanied by a few of his friends. Everywhere he was hailed with enthusiastic cries--"_Evviva il Giovanni e il Cosimo_."

The young d.u.c.h.ess Margaret fled precipitately from the Via Larga to the fortress of San Giovanni, which Alessandro had only just built and fortified. With her went three young children--not her own indeed, for she had proved to be barren,--but children she found in her husband's house. By Florentine law they were recognised as belonging to the family, and no one troubled about their precise origin.

These little ones were probably the issue of the Duke by a handsome _contadina_ employed in the palace, who went by the name of Anna da Ma.s.sa. Francesco Guicciardini, however, says she was the Marchesa da Ma.s.sa, a n.o.ble lady, one of Alessandro's chief favourites. Giulio, some five years old, became a soldier, and died Prior of the new military Order of St Stephen of Pisa; Porczia died an enclosed nun in Rome; and Giulia married Francesco de' Barthelemmi.

Margaret herself married Ottavio Farnese, Prince of Nepi and Camerino, a lad of sixteen years of age, and, a second time, being left a widow, she espoused the Duke of Parma, and died in 1586--fifty years after her ill-starred marriage with Alessandro de' Medici.

It was reputed that shortly before his a.s.sa.s.sination, a Greek soothsayer one day stopped the Duke's cortege in the street, and cried out, so that all might hear: "Alessandro, Duke of Florence, thou shall be slain by a relative, a thin man, small of stature, and dark of countenance. He will have one accomplice. Beware!"

As for Lorenzino, whilst no action was taken publicly in Florence against him--for, secretly all men, and openly the majority, praised his act--there was a party whose members were sworn to avenge Alessandro's blood. They enlisted a service of irreconcilables to track the murderer to his death.

For eleven long years Lorenzino traversed land and sea, pursued, not only by relentless foes, but tormented by an accusing conscience. He was no Brutus to himself, but relapsed once more into a craven, stalking coward. At length retribution overtook him, for two soldiers, devoted to Alessandro's memory, hunted him down in the waterways of Venice, to which he had returned. One day, in May 1548, Bedo da Volterra and Cecchino da Bibonna caught him by the Rialto, unattended and unarmed, and their daggers did the work as effectively for him as did his sword for Duke Alessandro!

What became of Lorenzino's body n.o.body knew and n.o.body cared, probably it was tossed by his a.s.sa.s.sins into the Grand Ca.n.a.l, and being washed out into the sea, will await that day when the deep shall yield up all that is therein.