virtue that, so far as possible, he had abstained from too free a use
of the punishment of death. He accepted as no more than his due the
almost fabulous respect of the Italians for his political genius. In
1486 he boasted that the Pope Alexander was his chaplain, the Emperor
Maximilian his Condottiere, Venice his chamberlain, and the King of
France his courier, who must come and go at his bidding. With marvelous
presence of mind he weighed, even in his last extremity (1499), a
possible means of escape, and at length he decided, to his honour, to
trust to the goodness of human nature; he rejected the proposal of his
brother, the Cardinal Ascanio, who wished to remain in the Citadel of
Milan, on the ground of a former quarrel: 'Monsignore, take it not ill,
but I trust you not, brother though you be'; and appointed to the
command of the castle, 'that pledge of his return ,' a man to whom he
had always done good, but who nevertheless betrayed him. At home the
Moor was a good and useful ruler, and to the last he reckoned on his
popularity both in Milan and in Como. In later years (after 1496) he
had overstrained the resources of his State, and at Cremona had
ordered, out of pure expediency, a respectable citizen, who had spoken
again st the new taxes, to be quietly strangled. Since that time, in
holding audiences, he kept his visitors away from his person by means
of a bar, so that in conversing with him they were compelled to speak
at the top of their voices. At his court, the most brilliant in Europe,
since that of Burgundy had ceased to exist, immorality of the worst
kind was prevalent; the daughter was sold by the father, the wife by
the husband, the sister by the brother. The Prince himself was
incessantly active, and, as son of his own deeds, claimed relationship
with all who, like himself, stood on their personal merits with
scholars, poets, artists, and musicians. The academy which he founded 6
served rather for his own purposes than for the instruction of
scholars; nor was it the fame of the distinguished men who surrounded