for political offences, should be pardoned and liberated; that the government should be what it was in the time of Piero Soderini, before 1512; that the great bell should again be rung for parliaments; and that the exile of the Medici be proclaimed to the sound of trumpets. I do not recollect the order in which these were voted on account of the confusion and the violence of certain youths, which was so great that, whilst I was in front of the Signoria, a blow was aimed at the Gonfalonier; the flat of the sword hit him on the shoulder near the neck, but not severely, and I put my handkerchief to his neck, fearing it would bleed.” After the departure of the Cardinal of Cortona with Ippolito and Alessandro de’ Medici the great hall of the Five Hundred was cleared of the barracks erected for the Spanish soldiers and restored to its proper use. Niccolò Capponi, head of the _ottimati_ party, was elected Gonfalonier of Justice and began to treat with the Pope to gain time, which incensed the _popolani_, or popular party, who were already angry because he showed such reverence for the memory of Savonarola. “At this time,” writes Varchi, “the Gonfalonier, either persuaded by the friars of S. Marco, with whom he consorted, or more probably to gain the party of the friars, which was considerable and of no small reputation, favoured and seconded as much as he could all that Fra Girolamo had instituted, so that he was blamed and scoffed at by many. Amongst other things he repeated almost word for word a sermon of the friar’s, in which he first predicted much evil, and afterwards much good, to the city of Florence, and at the end he threw himself on his knees and crying out _misericordia_ in a loud voice, persuaded the whole council to repeat _misericordia_. Not content with this he proposed in the Great Council that Christ should be accepted as the especial King of Florence. There were twenty dissentients, and thinking that no one would ever obliterate it, Capponi had the following inscription placed above the door of the palace-- Y.H.S. CHRISTO REGI SUO DOMINO DOMINANTUM DEO SUMMO OPTMAX LIBERATORI MARIAEQUE VIRGINI REGINAE DICAVIT. AN.SAL.M.D.XXVII.S.P.Q.F. The curious thing is that Segni gives two other different inscriptions and that none of the three coincide with the one still over the door-- REX REGUM ET DOMINUS DOMINANTIUM, with the monogram Y.H.S. in the centre of a star above.