This letter, as well as well as one of Guicciardini's on this occasion, has been mutilated by a person, whose scrupulous good taste was offended by the tone of some of the pleasantries. That was not the age of decorum either in speech or action. [Sidenote: 1524. Ætat. 55.] The cardinal Julius had commissioned Machiavelli to write the history of Florence, and he proceeded in it as far as the death of Lorenzo de' Medici. He writes to Guicciardini, on the 30th of August, 1524, "I am staying in the country, occupied in writing my history; and I would give fivepence--I will not say more--to have you here, that I might show you where I am, as in certain particulars I wish to know whether you would be offended most by my elevated or humble manner of treating them. I try, nevertheless, to write so as, by telling the truth, to displease no one." [Sidenote: 1526. Ætat. 57.] Cardinal Julius had now become pope, under the title of Clement VII. He paid Machiavelli a regular but very limited salary as historiographer. Having brought it down to the time of the death of Lorenzo de' Medici, he made a volume of it, and dedicated it to the pope. On this occasion he writes to Guicciardini, "I have received a gratification of 100 ducats for my history. I am beginning again; and relieve myself by blaming the princes who have done every thing they can to bring us to this pass." He signs himself to this letter, Niccolò Machiavelli, historian, comic and tragic author,--_storico, comico, et tragico._ The condition of Italy was at this period most deplorable. The French had been driven from Italy after the battle of Pavia; but no sooner was that power humbled, than the various states began to regard with alarm the ascendancy of the emperor Charles V. A confederacy was formed by the chief among them, for the purpose of holding this powerful monarch in check; and he sent the constable Bourbon to Milan to preserve that duchy. Thus there were two armies in the heart of the peninsula, both unpaid, both lawless, and destructive to friends as well as to enemies. The emperor sent no supplies to Bourbon; and the pope, who was at the head of the Italian league, showed himself so timid and vaccillating, and, above all, so penurious, as to bring down ruin on his cause. Bourbon was unable to keep his troops together, except by promises of plunder; and he led them southward by slow advances, with the intention of enriching them by the sack of Florence or Rome. The danger was nearest to the former city; and Clement VII. considered it requisite to put it in a state of defence. Machiavelli was employed to inspect the progress of the fortifications. He executed his task diligently, and, as was his wont, put his whole heart and soul into his occupation. "My head is so full of bulwarks," he says, "that nothing else will enter it."