Laurentius de Medicis.[171] The following letter was written after Lorenzo’s visit to Volterra. The city had rebelled against Florence in consequence of a dispute between a company in which Florentine shareholders were interested, and the Commune of Volterra about an alum mine. The Commune alleged that the lease was illegal and seized the mine, whereupon the company appealed to the Signoria of Florence. Volterra had already, in 1429, attempted to rise against the imposition of the _catasto_, and the Florentines now determined to take severe measures.[172] Duke Federigo of Urbino, the Florentine general, in command of some six thousand men, including contingents from the Pope and the Duke of Milan, attacked the city. Her mercenaries refused to fight, and she capitulated after a siege of twenty-five days. When the troops entered there was an uproar, caused it is said by a mercenary in the service of the city, which was sacked and the inhabitants were brutally maltreated in spite of the efforts of the Florentine commanders.[173] Many historians have accused Lorenzo of being the prime instigator of the attack on Volterra in order to get control of the alum mine. But his name is not in the list of shareholders and the deposit of alum was too small to compete with the mines of Tolfa of which he was the lessee (see pp. 98-99), and was soon afterwards abandoned. Ingherami di Volterra, _Apostolic Scribe, to_ Lorenzo de’ Medici _Magnifice vir et protector mi singularis commendatione premissa_, &c.,--I derived great consolation from the visit of Your Magnificence to Volterra. With your own eyes you should see and judge far better than by listening to the accounts of others of the public and private despair and misery here. You have seen the afflicted and faithful friends and servants of Your Magnificence naked, despoiled of all their goods, robbed without mercy, for everything was taken during the sack of the city; and I doubt not that Your Magnificence with your kindly nature was moved to great compassion. Your arrival and seeing with your own eyes has been the sole hope of this people and has consoled and comforted them greatly. Therefore by this present and by other letters I have written to Your Magnificence (I know not whether you received them), I beg and pray of you not to allow them to be deprived of that hope, and to show them your justice and grace by helping and restoring, and listening to the prayers of this wretched and miserable city. Now that she belongs faithfully and devotedly to Your Magnificence and to the Florentine State she ceases to be an enemy. All now depends on Your Magnificence. We do not so much expect as feel certain that we shall receive this help from you; first from your own goodness, and then for love of the blessed memory of the grandfather and father of Your Magnificence, to whom this