[993] Giraldi, Hecatommithi, i. nov. 7.
[994] Infessura, in Eccard, Scriptt. ii. col. 1892, for the year 1464.
[995] Allegretto, Diari Sanisi, in Murat. xxiii. col. 837. Allegretto was himself present when the oath was taken, and had no doubt of its efficacy.
[996] Those who leave vengeance to God are ridiculed by Pulci, Morgante, canto xxi. str. 83 sqq., 104 sqq.
[997] Guicciardini, Ricordi, l. c. n. 74.
[998] Thus Cardanus (De Propria Vita, cap. 13) describes himself as very revengeful, but also as ‘verax, memor beneficiorum, amans justitiæ.’
[999] It is true that when the Spanish rule was fully established the population fell off to a certain extent. Had this fact been due to the demoralisation of the people, it would have appeared much earlier.
[1000] Giraldi, Hecatommithi, iii. nov. 2. In the same strain, Cortigiano, l. iv. fol. 180.
[1001] A shocking instance of vengeance taken by a brother at Perugia in the year 1455, is to be found in the chronicle of Graziani (Arch. Stor. xvi. p. 629). The brother forces the gallant to tear out the sister’s eyes, and then beats him from the place. It is true that the family was a branch of the Oddi, and the lover only a cordwainer.
[1002] Bandello, parte i. nov. 9 and 26. Sometimes the wife’s confessor is bribed by the husband and betrays the adultery.