For eleven long years Lorenzino traversed land and sea, pursued, not only by relentless foes, but tormented by an accusing conscience. He was no Brutus to himself, but relapsed once more into a craven, stalking coward. At length retribution overtook him, for two soldiers, devoted to Alessandro’s memory, hunted him down in the waterways of Venice, to which he had returned. One day, in May 1548, Bedo da Volterra and Cecchino da Bibonna caught him by the Rialto, unattended and unarmed, and their daggers did the work as effectively for him as did his sword for Duke Alessandro!
What became of Lorenzino’s body nobody knew and nobody cared, probably it was tossed by his assassins into the Grand Canal, and being washed out into the sea, will await that day when the deep shall yield up all that is therein.
Some authorities state that a reward of ten thousand gold florins was offered for his head, that his effigy was burnt with every mark of opprobrium in the Piazza della Signoria, and that the rabble pulled his house down and burnt out the site.
CHAPTER III — A Father’s Vengeance — Maria, Giovanni, and Garzia de’Medici — Malatesta de’ Malatesti
A Father’s Vengeance
“I will have no Cain in my family!” roared out Cosimo de’ Medici—“Il Giovane,” Duke of Florence, in the forest of Rosignano.
“A Medico of the Medici,” prompt in action and suave in repose, his hand flew to his sword hilt, and the cruel, cold steel of a father’s wrath flashed in the face of Heaven! Duchess Eleanora made one swift step forward, intent upon shielding her child, but she stood there transfixed with horror—her arms and hands outstretched to the wide horizon in silent supplication, her tongue paralysed!
The kneeling boy grasped his father’s knees, weeping piteously, and crying aloud in vain for mercy. Thrusting him from him, and spurning him with his heavy hunting-boot, he plunged furiously his gleaming blade into his son’s breast, until the point came out between his shoulderblades!