[187] On the 15th of November, 1848, Count Rossi was assassinated on entering the Chamber of Deputies at its first sitting. No effort was made by the bystanders or Assembly to seize the culprit. At night the streets rang with the chorus—

"Benedetta quella mano
Che il tiranno pugnalò!"

It has been our study to exclude from these pages all allusion to modern politics, or to events as yet untested by time. But when outrages such as this are perpetrated in broad day, and applauded by a people, it becomes all men to protest against lessons calculated to annihilate civilisation, and to reproduce the worst features of the dark ages.

[188] See also in Fabronio, Laurentii Medicis Vita, ch. ii., p. 130, a letter from Sixtus to Duke Federigo, explanatory of his policy, but curious rather from the eccentricity of its illiterate style, in which barbarous Latin forms a strange medley with uncultivated Italian. Likewise, at p. 136, a protest of the Florentine clergy to the Pope.

[189] Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1198.

[190] Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1198. In this collection of Federigo's letters are other proofs of his intimacy with the accomplished Sovereign of Hungary. In 1476 he entertained at Urbino the ambassadors sent by that monarch to negotiate his marriage with Beatrice, daughter of Ferdinand of Naples; and having received, through the physician Fontana, an invitation to the nuptials, the Duke wrote to King Matthew that, though most willing to attend, this must depend on the pleasure of his Holiness and Ferdinand, adding that he had been the servant of his affianced bride from her tender years.

[*191] For an account of the Duke's connection with San Marino, cf. G.G., Tre Documenti inediti risguardanti la Rep. di S. Marino (Pesaro, 1888). The first document refers to Federigo in 1461, the others to 1502 and 1560.

[*192] Allegretti, Diario Senese, in Muratori, R.I.S., vol. XXIV. Tonini, Storia di Rimini (Rimini), vol. IV., p. 163, tells us that "Furono comprato nove palle di ferro del total peso libbre 33, pro 9 pallottis bombatarum pond. 33 libr...."

[193] It was usual to bind the annual fiscal accounts of Siena in wooden boards, on which some historical or domestic incident was painted. Many of these bicherne remain, curious memorials of manners and of art. I found at p. 210 of Pecci's Iscrizioni, MSS. in the public library there, a notice of one representing the siege of Colle, which would valuably illustrate these observations, could it be recovered.

[194] Volterrano gives a curious account of this function, R.I.S., XXIII., 114.