His father’s memory probably preserved his life a few years before, for Varchi tells us, “Signor Otto da Montauto was taken up for killing Bernardo Arrighi at Prato and condemned to lose his head, but the punishment was commuted to a fine of 1000 ducats and a year’s imprisonment. But it is supposed that these rigorous measures were not taken against Signor Otto for the murder committed, but because on his return from succouring Lastra when sent on a secret mission to Trebbio to fetch Madonna Maria de’ Medici and Cosimino her son, he failed to do so; some say that having asked a peasant who was coming down from Trebbio: ‘Who is up there and what are they doing?’ The man, being intelligent and quick-witted, understood what manner of man he was, and answered with intent to frighten him: ‘Up there are the Lady Maria and the Lord Cosimo with many soldiers and all the peasants of the country round, and they are making good cheer and keep watch day and night.’ So Signor Otto would not tempt fortune. Others say he did not go because, not only do good soldiers dislike doing the work of policemen, but having begun life under the Lord Giovanni and gained his spurs with him, like all who had fought under the Lord Giovanni he worshipped his memory in a way not to be believed, and therefore was attached to his wife and his son.” The “kindly nature” of Cosimo was only skin-deep if all the tales told of him are true, and his youngest son Don Pietro de’ Medici was distinguished for immorality. Married against his will to Eleonora, daughter of his mother’s brother Don Garcia di Toledo, he systematically neglected the young and lovely Spaniard, described as “beautiful, elegant, gracious, kindly, charming and affable; and above all with two eyes rivalling the stars in brilliancy.”[15] Evil tongues whispered that the Grand Duke’s admiration for his wife’s niece was the principal motive for her marriage with Don Pietro which ended so tragically at Cafaggiuolo. After the death of Cosimo I the name of Alessandro Gaci, a handsome youth from Castiglion Florentino, was coupled with that of Donna Eleonora, but the threats of the Grand Duke Francesco forced him to leave Florence and enter a Capuchin monastery. His successor was a Florentine, Bernardino Antinori, whose passionate admiration for the lovely princess soon became known. The lovers were imprudent; a letter fell into the hands of the Grand Duke, whose scandalous ill-treatment of his wife Joan of Austria and subserviency to every whim of the dissolute Venetian, Bianca Cappello, were the talk of Florence. He asserted that the honour of his family demanded an example and ordered Antinori to be taken to the Bargello and strangled, and his sister-in-law to be sent to rejoin her husband at Cafaggiuolo. Bidding a tearful farewell to her little son, Eleonora left Florence on the morning of the 11th July 1576 and reached the stern old villa at nightfall, where Don Pietro received her with unwonted demonstrations