of Duke. Cosimo was but a boy, and much addicted to field sports.
Guicciardini therefore reckoned that, with an assured income of 12,000
ducats, the youth would be contented to amuse himself, while he left the
government of Florence in the hands of his Vizier.[9] But here the wily
politician overreached himself. Cosimo wore an old head on his young
shoulders. With decent modesty and a becoming show of deference, he used
Guicciardini as his ladder to mount the throne by, and then kicked the
ladder away. The first days of his administration showed that he
intended to be sole master in Florence. Guicciardini, perceiving that
his game was spoiled, retired to his villa in 1537 and spent the last
years of his life in composing his histories. The famous Istoria d'
Italia was the work of one year of this enforced retirement. The
question irresistibly rises to our mind, whether some of the severe
criticisms passed upon the Medici in his unpublished compositions were
the fruit of these same bitter leisure hours.[10] Guicciardini died in
1540 at the age of fifty-eight, without male heirs.

[1] See the 'Apologia de' Cappucci,' _Arch. Stor._ vol. iv.
part 2, p. 318.

[2] For the avarice of Guicciardini, see Varchi, vol. i. p.
318. His _Ricordi Politici_ amply justify the second, though
not the first, clause of this sentence.

[3] See Varchi, book xii. (and especially cap. xxv.), for these
arts; he says, 'Nel che messer Francesco Guicciardini si
scoperse più crudele e più appassionato degli altri.'

[4] Knowing what sort of tyrant Alessandro was, and remembering
'hat Guicciardini had written (_Ricordi_, No. ccxlii.): 'La