Luca di Antonio Degli Albizzi
Albizzi, Luca di Antonio Degli

9 July
Florence

LETTER IV.
COPY OF A LETTER WRITTEN BY ME, LUCA DI ANTONIO DEGLI ALBIZZI, TO THE ILLUSTRIOUS AND MAGNIFICENT SIGNORIA, 9 JULY, 22D HOUR.

Magnificent Signori: —

I know not whether in the last hour of my life (which God grant may be soon!) I shall suffer one fourth of the pain and affliction which I feel at this time; not so much on account of the perils to which I have been, and am still exposed, nor on account of my seizure and detention, but because I see from the letters of your Lordships, and particularly the one of the 8th, written at the fourth hour, that you have not as much faith in me as I had supposed that I deserved; but that I have been abandoned by all, like one forsaken and lost. My sins and ill fortune will it so; but God perhaps will succor him who is so unjustly abandoned! Having fully pointed out to your Lordships the dangers, and you knowing perfectly yourselves the wretched conduct of these men so recently towards the king of France and the Duke of Milan, it was not to be supposed that any expedients would moderate the dishonest demands of these Swiss. But it has pleased your Lordships to have it so, and although for the moment out of prison, yet I continue to be obliged to dispute my life, for at every moment there are fresh menaces and impositions, and new dangers, all on account of our republic, and whether just or unjust, I alone have to suffer without so much as being pitied! May God comfort me by death, if in no other way!

Niccolo Machiavelli has informed you of my capture; after that I was led on foot half a mile or more in the direction of Pisa, and taken before the captain of the Swiss, where after a long altercation, and being threatened with their halberds, I was told that before they would let me get out of their hands they meant that some four or five hundred of their companions who had come from Rome, allured by the prospects held out to them by your Lordships, should be paid, and that I should guarantee it; and if not promptly done, they would not content themselves merely by keeping me prisoner. I recalled to them the honor of the king, the good treatment

they had received, and that they would be settled with by your Lordships, and therefore they ought not to maltreat me personally; but neither reason nor the manifest impossibility of my doing anything could move them in the least. So that after much contention and threatening I was told that, if I did not settle with them, not only my person, but our whole republic, would suffer in consequence; and that they had the means of paying themselves with our artillery if they chose to do so. Seeing no help, and being utterly without any means wherewith to satisfy them, I begged their captain to guarantee my promises to them, which he did; but it is evident that he will have to be paid before I can leave him. I will do my utmost to procure the means, and if Pellegrino has nothing left, I must see whether I can have recourse to Lodovico Morelli, and to what little money may remain in the hands of Bernardo Pacini, which, however, would derange everything, unless your Lordships provide otherwise; for I had intended that money for the re-establishment of the garrisons of Cascina and Vico; but I shall do as best I can. Although it was agreed in my arrangement with the captain of the Swiss that the artillery should be brought to me all safe to Cascina, yet I am not certain whether it will be done.

These men intend breaking up in the night and moving towards San Giovanni alla Vena, where they are to remain to-morrow, and then go by the Lucca road to Pietrasanta, to remain until they learn the pleasure of his Majesty the king. I understand that the Gascons are waiting for them on Lucchese territory; and if I am permitted, I shall remain at Vico or Cascina and wait there for my leave from your Lordships. Upon this point I ought reasonably to have no apprehensions, my hope being mainly in your Lordships’ good will; nor do I reply to your third and last letter, for both the times and circumstances favor those at whose discretion we happen to be. I recommend myself to your Lordships.

Although I wrote yesterday at Cascina and Vico urging the completion of the companies, yet I entreat your Lordships to provide for them at once, whilst we are in danger. And so soon as these troops have left here the Lord of Piombino should concentrate all his forces at Cascina; and if you have other troops at your service they should be sent to Vico, so as to establish a reasonable garrison there. And when Cascina shall

have been properly provided for, then all the suspected persons whom your Lordships have lately sent away from Florence should be removed from there.