self on the bed and rest himself until his return, as he felt himself unusually tired. Lorenzino assisted him to the couch, and placed his sword officiously at his bed's head, having first taken care to entangle the hilt and sheath in such a manner with the belt, that it would be difficult to draw it; and then left him to repose on the very brink of the precipice to which he had enticed him. Lorenzino found his confederate well prepared to second him; but fearing that Scoronconcolo might draw back when he saw who he was brought to assassinate, he thought it better to sound him on the subject. He began by assuring him their victim could not escape, but warned him that the person whom they were to attack was a man of great consequence in the state, and that he must not be daunted on that account. "Fear not, Master," replied Scoronconcolo, were it the Duke himself I would not fail thee." " By Heaven thou hast rightly guessed," said Lorenzino, in a low tone, "it is the Duke himself." "Well, Duke or devil," replied the ruffian, "let us come on; it is but a man, I suppose." 66 This conversation passed in an under tone, almost at the door of the bed-room, which the confederates entered with noiseless steps, and found by his hard deep breathing that their victim slept soundly. Con See Varchi" Storia Fiorentina." cealing their faces with black masks, they assaulted him at once, and wounded him in several places without effect. The unfortunate Prince made a desperate resistance, and having vainly endeavoured to draw his hampered sword, struggled hard with his murderers, when Lorenzino perceiving that he might yet shake them off and give the alarm, threw himself upon him with the whole weight of his body, and pinned him down to the bed. In the scuffle the Duke got hold of Lorenzino's right thumb with his teeth, and bit him with such force that he could not help roaring out with agony, and called to Scoronconcolo to despatch him, which he could not do, as Lorenzino so completely covered the Duke's body, that it was impossible to strike a mortal blow without wounding his master. Perceiving their situation, Lorenzino drew out a case-knife with his left hand, which was the only weapon he ever wore, and had frequently been the object of the duke's ridicule, and plunged it into the back of Alessandro's neck near the spine. In giving this blow his mask fell off; and the dying prince, recognising his treacherous friend, exclaimed, "Et tu Lorenzino," and expired without a groan." Horror-struck at their daring achievement, the two confederates looked at each other with astonish See" Vita di Alessandro de Medici." ment; and as if aware of their danger for the first time, began to prepare for immediate escape. Mounting two of Lorenzino's fleetest horses, they soon passed the gates by means of the Duke's signet, and reached the Mugello long before dawn, where they were received with the greatest acclamations, and Lorenzino was hailed as the Brutus of the age, and the deliverer of his country. But Providence seldom allows crime to prosper even for a time; and this very measure, by which the republican party hoped to secure their triumph, produced the directly opposite effect. The citizens of Florence, tired of continual wars and unavailing contests, determined to elect a prince who should unite in his own person the advantage of being the peoples' choice, and the nearest legitimate descendant of the house of Medici. They selected Cosimo, the only son of Giovanni de Medici, better known as the chief of the "bande nere," who was cousin to the two princes, both the murderer and the murdered, and immediately proclaimed him Duke of Florence. This was the ruin of the liberal party; and Filippo Strozzi, on his return to the city in hopes of getting Lorenzino proclaimed Duke, was taken prisoner, and confined in a fortress which had been originally built with his own money, where he shortly afterwards put an end to his existence, unable to survive the destruction of his party. Lorenzino branded with the name of "il traditore," and shunned by his fellowcreatures, fled to Venice, but not considering himselfin safety there, he escaped to Constantinople, and did not return to Italy for many years afterwards. Justice, though long delayed, overtook him at last, and he was assassinated in the streets of Venice by an old follower of Alessandro's, who, by so doing, conceived he had discharged a debt of gratitude to the memory of his former master.* The Strozzi and Soderini families were exiled from Florence, to prevent their exciting fresh disturbances in the state; and the gentle Luisa, unable to survive her lover's infamy and her father's suicide, gradually sunk under the pressure of such irreparable calamities. Although she had loved with more than common affection, she resisted all the importunities of her family in Lorenzino's favour. Her sense of religion was too strong for her to hesitate one instant in refusing the hand of a murderer. The politics of her own relations could not palliate in her mind the enormity of his conduct; not even love itself could conquer her just abhorrence of treachery and crime; and soon after Lorenzino's departure for the Levant, her gentle spirit found eternal peace in an early grave. * See "Pignotti Etoria della Toscana." ZEPHYR. WRITTEN IN A SALOON WHERE A YOUNG AND BEAU TIFUL GIRL WAS ARRANGING FLOWERS. BY SIR THOMAS ELMSLEY CROFT, BART. ZEPHYR! Zephyr! wake, awake! Come hither through the gath'ring gloom, And spread your influence o'er the room: Made from the spoil of bees, who fed Mark how before the altar stands |