[218] The young Cardinal was set at liberty on June 5th, and went for a few days to the Servite monastery in the SS. Annunziata. From there he wrote to the Pope expressing deep gratitude to the Signoria and to Lorenzo de’ Medici for the kind treatment he had received, and bitterly lamented that His Holiness had not acceded to his prayer that the interdict should be taken off. On June 12th he left for Siena, and an old chronicler writes that he was still under the influence of great terror and seemed to feel the rope round his neck. If at the time of the assassination he had not been well guarded the exasperated populace would probably have torn him to pieces. [219] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza vii. No. 404. [220] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza vii. No. 404. [221] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. xi. 131. [222] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xliii. No. 175. [223] Philippe de Comines. [224] Philippe de Comines. [225] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 187. [226] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza vii. No. 413. [227] A piece torn out of the letter. [228] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xxxi. No. 31. [229] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, &c., _op. cit._ ii. 131. [230] The address on outside of sheet is: Magnifico Hieronimo Morelli, Oratori florentino, patri meo. (_Arch. Med. ante Principatum_, Filza 124, No. 2.) [231] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza cxxiv. No. 2. [232] After the Pazzi conspiracy the Republic engaged in war with Sixtus IV. and the King of Naples. The Pope excommunicated Florence, as he declared out of hatred of the Medici, whose exile he demanded. The Signoria answered by appointing twelve trusty men to be Lorenzo’s bodyguard. “Then,” writes Ammirato, “they obtained the opinion of Bartolommeo Sozzino (probably what Poliziano refers to), Francesco Aretino, Lancillotto Decio, Bulgarino, Andrea Panormita, Pier Filippo Cornio and other masters of canon law and theology, who advised that notwithstanding the Pope’s censures, by whom they had been excommunicated, they, by appealing to the future Council, might cause Divine service to be celebrated in their city,” which was done. [233] This is one of several letters alluding to Clarice’s dislike of him. [234] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, &c., _op. cit._ ii. 183. [235] Matteo Franco, chaplain and devoted adherent of Lorenzo. [236] _Prose Volgari inedite_, &c., _op. cit._ p. 59. [237] _Prose Volgari inedite_, &c., _op. cit._ p. 61. [238] Ercole d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, who had been named Captain of the Florentine troops. [239] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 184. [240] _Prose Volgari inedite_, op. cit. p. 64. [241] The grammar of Theodoro Gaza, a Greek, was the favourite one in those days. [242] _Letterine d’un Bambino Fiorentino_, Nozze Bemporad-Vita. Firenze, 1887. Ediz. di 150 esemplari. [243] _Vita Nuova_, op. cit. No. x. p. 2, Gugliemo Volpi. [244] A saying still used when a child cries. [245] Probably Gentile Becchi, Bishop of Arezzo.