Boccalino de’ Guzzoni betook himself to Florence, where he was honourably received, and Lorenzo was commissioned to pay him the greater part of the sum allotted to him, of which he had received 1,000 ducats on his departure. But there were other difficulties to contend with, and Lorenzo’s letters to Giovanni Lanfredini, the ambassador at Rome, show how indignant he was at the delay in fulfilling the promises made him from thence, and how he feared to be compromised by this delay. As the promised money did not arrive and Boccalino pressed for payment, Lorenzo advanced him 500 ducats and charged the ambassador to see to the settlement of the matter. ‘I do not believe,’ he wrote to Lanfredini,’[306] that the Pope is by nature spiteful or quarrelsome. But even if he were so, which I have never observed, he ought not to be so towards me. Try to arrange the matter, for I should regret the least stain on my honour more than life or all else that is dear to me on earth. Make no secret of it that, if no regard is paid to my honour, I shall make no scruple of showing my displeasure. I cannot believe it, but shall act according to experience.’ The Florentines seemed to expect that Boccalino would settle among them and claim the freedom of the city, in which they were willing to help him; they also offered him a military post in their service. After staying awhile, however, he went to Milan, whence Lodovico, who disliked having him in his neighbourhood, got rid of him by force. When Lorenzo performed this service for the Pope, a family alliance had already been sealed between them. The course of political events has caused us to lose sight of the mi pare mettere una gran parte dello honore e fede mia.’ Medici family since the complications and conflicts which sprang from the Pazzi conspiracy. The house in the Via Larga was full of children; besides the three sons, Piero, Giovanni, and Giuliano, there were four blooming daughters, Lucrezia, Maddalena, Luigia, and Contessina. Lucrezia, the eldest of all, was early betrothed to Jacopo Salviati, for the sake of blotting out the memories of 1478. Luigia, the third daughter, was the bride of Giovanni de’ Medici, the younger grandson of Cosimo the Elder’s brother Lorenzo. When the eldest daughter’s marriage took place in 1487, her grandmother was dead. Lucrezia Tornabuoni died on the Feast of the Annunciation, 1482. The loss of his excellent mother was deeply felt by Lorenzo. ‘My reverence for your Excellency,’ he wrote on the same day to the Duchess of Ferrara, Eleonora d’Aragona d’Este,[307] ‘commands me to announce to you the sad and overwhelming event which has this day befallen me, the death of my dearest mother Madonna Lucrezia. It has plunged me in a grief which your Excellency can imagine, for I have lost, not only my mother, but my only refuge amid my many cares and difficulties, the only helper who could aid and counsel me in my many troubles. It is