should save her from these barbarous cruelties ind insults!  See her all ready and alert to follow any standard, if only there be a man to raise it!’ Then Machiavelli addresses himself to the chief of the Medici in person.  ’Nor is there at the present moment any place more full of hope for her than your illustrious House, which by its valor and its fortune, favored by God and by the Church, whereof it is now the head, might take the lead in this delivery.’  This is followed by one of the rare passages of courtly rhetoric which, when Machiavelli condescends to indulge in them, add peculiar splendor to his style.  Then he turns again to speak of the means which should immediately be used.  He urges Lorenzo above all things to put no faith in mercenaries or auxiliaries, but to raise his own forces, and to rely on the Italian infantry.  If Italian armies have always been defeated in the field during the past twenty years, it is not due so much to their defective courage as to the weakness of their commanders.  Lorenzo will have to raise a force capable of coping with the Swiss, the Spanish, and the French.  The respect with which Machiavelli speaks at this supreme moment of these foreign troops, proves how great was their prestige in Italy; yet he ventures to point out that there are faults peculiar to each of them:  the Spanish infantry cannot stand a cavalry charge, and the Switzers are liable to be disconcerted by the rapid attack of the wiry infantry of Spain.  It is therefore necessary to train troops capable of resisting cavalry, and not afraid of facing any foot soldiers in the world.  ’This opportunity, therefore, must not be suffered to slip by; in order that Italy may after so long a time at last behold her saviour.  Nor can I find words to describe the love with which he would be hailed in all the provinces that have suffered through these foreign deluges, the thirst for vengeance, the stubborn fidelity, the piety, the tears, that he would meet What gates would be closed against him?  What people would refuse him allegiance?  What jealousy would thwart him?  What Italian would be found to refuse him homage?  This rule of the barbarians stinks in the nostrils of us all.  Then let your illustrious House assume this enterprise in the spirit and the confidence wherewith just enterprises are begun, that so, under your flag, this land of ours may be ennobled, and under your auspices be brought to pass that prophecy of Petrarch:—­

  ’Lo, valor against rage
  Shall take up arms, nor shall the fight be long;
  For that old heritage
  Of courage in Italian hearts is stout and strong.

With this trumpet-cry of impassioned patriotism the Principe closes.