a narrow passage was driven through it, which received the name of Traitor’s Alley, Chiasso del Traditore.  The price put upon his head was enormous—­four thousand golden florins, with a pension of one hundred florins to the murderer and his heirs in perpetuity.  The man who should kill Lorenzino was, further, to enjoy amnesty from all offenses and to exercise full civic rights; he was promised exemption from taxes, the privilege of carrying arms with two attendants in the whole domain of Florence, and the prerogative of restoring ten outlaws at his choice.  If he captured Lorenzino and brought him alive to Florence, the reward would be double in each item.  There was enough here to raise cupidity and stir the speculative spirit.  Cecco Bibboni shall tell us how the business was brought to a successful termination.[225]

[Footnote 225:  For the Italian text see Lorenzino de’Medici, Daelli, Milano, 1862.  The above is borrowed from my Italian Byways.]

‘When I returned from Germany,’ begins Bibboni, ’where I had been in the pay of the Emperor, I found at Vicenza Bebo da Volterra, who was staying in the house of M. Antonio da Roma, a nobleman of that city.  This gentleman employed him because of a great feud he had; and he was mighty pleased, moreover, at my coming, and desired that I too should take up my quarters in his palace.’

Bibboni proceeds to say how another gentleman of Vicenza, M. Francesco Manente, had at this time a feud with certain of the Guazzi and the Laschi, which had lasted several years, and cost the lives of many members of both parties and their following.  M. Francesco, being a friend of M. Antonio, besought that gentleman to lend him Bibboni and Bebo for a season; and the two bravi went together with their new master to Celsano, a village in the neighborhood.  ’There both parties had estates, and all of them kept armed men in their houses, so that not a day passed without feats of arms, and always there was some one killed or wounded.  One day, soon afterwards, the leaders of our party resolved to attack the foe in their house, where we killed two, and the rest, numbering five men, entrenched themselves in a ground-floor apartment; whereupon we took possession of their harquebusses and other arms, which forced them to abandon the villa and retire to Vicenza; and within a short space of time this great feud was terminated by an ample peace.’  After this Bebo took service with the Rector of the University in Padua, and was transferred by his new patron to Milan.  Bibboni remained at Vicenza with M. Galeazzo della Seta, who stood in great fear of his life, notwithstanding the peace which had been concluded between the two factions.  At the end of ten months he returned to M. Antonio da Roma and his six brothers, ’all of whom being very much attached to me, they proposed that I should live my life with them, for good or ill, and be treated as one of the family; upon the understanding that if war broke out and I wanted to take part in it, I should always have twenty-five crowns and arms and horse, with welcome home, so long as I lived; and in case I did not care to join the troops, the same provision for my maintenance.’