whereas to the Pazzi and the other confederates places would be assigned
outside the screen, among the unofficial congregation.

Everything was in order, the great bell of the Duomo was sounding its
invitation, and the sacred building was packed with worshippers and
spectators. In full state Lorenzo, accompanied by Domina Clarice and
their Court, led Cardinal Sansoni to his chair of estate by the high
altar.

If, as he himself affirmed, Lorenzo was deprived of the pleasure of
smell, he had compensation in the greater acuteness of the other four
senses, and it must have struck his keen eyes, as he passed to his
place, that there seemed to be an unusually large muster of adherents of
the Pazzi and Salviati. Probably he reflected that they were there armed
in honour of the Cardinal, who was the guest of Cavaliere Giacopo and
under the guidance of Archbishop Francesco, as deputy of his Holiness
the Pope.

In the vast congregation everybody of importance in Florence was
assembled, with two notable exceptions--the mother and the only brother
of Lorenzo il Magnifico. The Domina Lucrezia, who had suddenly retired
from the prominent position she held at the Court of her son, remained
at Careggi with the venerable Madonna Contessina, Cosimo's widow, upon
whom she waited with the utmost devotion.

The other absentee was, once more, Giuliano! Consternation seized upon
the conspirators, for the slaughter would not be complete without the
shedding of his blood.

The preliminary anthems were being sung as the procession of the