CHAPTER I


LORENZO--"_Il Magnifico_."

GIULIANO--"_Il Pensieroso_."


"_Signori!_" "_Signori!_"

Such was the stirring cry which resounded through the lofty Council
Chamber of the famous Palazzo Vecchio that dull December day in the year
1469.

Never had such a title been accorded to any one in Florence, where every
man was as good as, if not better than, his neighbour. Foreign
sovereigns, and their lieutenants, who, from time to time, visited the
city and claimed toll and fealty from the citizens, had never been
addressed as "_Signori_"--"Lords and Masters." The "_Spirito del
Campanile_" as it was called, was nowhere more rampant than in the "City
of the Lion and Lily," where everybody at all times seemed only too
ready to disparage his fellow.

The cry was as astounding as it was unanimous--"_Signori!_" "_Signori!_"
"_Evviva i due Signori de' Medici!_" "_Signori!_" "_Signori!_" "_Evviva
i due figli della Domina Lucrezia._" Thus it gathered strength--its
importance was emphatic--it was epoch-marking.

"_Signori!_" "_Signori!_" was the acknowledgment of the sovereignty of