“Seeing her children in such peril,” said the Magnifico, “she at once caused Alexander’s body to be cast into the middle of the market-place. Then, having called the citizens to her, she said that she knew their minds to be kindled with very just wrath against her husband, because the cruel injuries that he had iniquitously done them deserved it; and that, as she had always wished, while he was alive, that she could make him abstain from such a wicked life, so now she was ready to give proof of it, and as far as possible to help them punish him after death; and therefore let them take his body, and give it as food for dogs, and outrage it in the most cruel ways they could devise: but she prayed them to have mercy upon her innocent children, who could not have either guilt or even knowledge of the father’s evil deeds. Of such efficacy were these words, that the fierce wrath before conceived in the minds of all that people was quickly softened and turned to a feeling of such pity, that they not only with one accord chose the children for their rulers, but also gave most honourable burial to the body of the dead.” Here the Magnifico made a little pause; then he added: “Do you not know that the wife and daughters of Mithridates showed much less fear of death than Mithridates?[350] And Hasdrubal’s wife than Hasdrubal?[351] Do you not know that Harmonia, daughter of Hiero the Syracusan, chose to perish in the burning of her native city?”[352] Then Frisio said: “Where obstinacy is concerned, it is certain that some women are occasionally to be found who never change their purpose; like the one who being no longer able to say ‘Scissors’ to her husband, made the sign of them to him with her hands.”[353] 23.—The Magnifico Giuliano laughed, and said: “Obstinacy that tends to a worthy end ought to be called steadfastness; as was the case of the famous Epicharis, a Roman freedwoman, who, being privy to a great conspiracy against Nero, was of such steadfastness that, although racked by all the direst tortures that can be imagined, she never betrayed one of her accomplices; while in the same peril many noble knights and senators basely accused brothers, friends and the dearest and nearest they had in the world.[354] “What will you say of that other woman who was called Leæna? In whose honour the Athenians dedicated a tongueless lioness (_leæna_) in bronze before the gate of the citadel, to show in her the steadfast virtue of silence; because being likewise privy to a conspiracy against the tyrants, she was not dismayed by the death of two great men (her friends), and although rent by countless most cruel tortures, she never betrayed one of the conspirators.”[355] Then madonna Margarita Gonzaga said: