news from Salviati that he had seized the _Gonfaloniere_ and the
palace, and then to ride fully armed with a retinue of mercenaries and
Montesicco's bodyguard of the Cardinal to the Piazza della Signoria.
Without awaiting the signal he advanced, raising the cry "_Liberta!_"
"_Liberta!_" but none rallied to his side.

Instead, he and his escort were pelted with stones and, on arriving in
the Piazza, he beheld the gruesome human decoration of the Campanile.
Without a moment's hesitation, spurring his horse, he rode swiftly
towards the Porta della Croce, and set off into the open country--a
fugitive!

Francesco de' Pazzi, after the slaughter of Giuliano, escaped to his
uncle's house, and stripping himself, received attention to his wound,
which was of a very serious nature. He was not, however, left very long
in peace, for the cry had gone forth in the streets--"Death to the
traitors!" "Down with the Pazzi and the Salviati!" "Fire their houses!"
The sword, still reeking red with the bluest blood of Florence, was
swiftly crossed by the sword of retribution. Francesco was dragged
forth, naked as he was from his bed, buffeted, pelted, and spat upon,
they thrust him with staves, weapons, hands and feet, right through the
Piazza della Signoria; up they forced him to the giddy gallery of the
Campanile, and then, flinging his bleeding, battered body out among his
bloodthirsty comrades, they left him to dangle and to die with them
there! The Archbishop, still in his gorgeous vestments, turned in
fury, as he hung head downwards in that ghastly company, and, seizing
his fiendish confederate, fixed his teeth in his bare breast, and so the
guilty pair expiated their hellish rage--unlovely in their lives,
revolting in their deaths!