From these details we comprehend the sort of calling which a bravo of Bibboni’s species followed.  Meanwhile Bebo was at Milan.  ’There it happened that M. Francesco Vinta, of Volterra, was on embassy from the Duke of Florence.  He saw Bebo, and asked him what he was doing in Milan, and Bebo answered that he was a knight errant.’  This phrase—­derived, no doubt, from the romantic epics then in vogue—­was a pretty euphemism for a rogue of Bebo’s quality.  The ambassador now began cautiously to sound his man, who seems to have been outlawed from the Tuscan duchy, telling him he knew a way by which he might return with favor to his home, and at last disclosing the affair of Lorenzino.  Bebo was puzzled at first, but when he understood the matter, he professed his willingness, took letters from the envoy to the Duke of Florence, and, in a private audience with Cosimo, informed him that he was ready to attempt Lorenzino’s assassination.  He added that ’he had a comrade fit for such a job, whose fellow for the business could not easily be found.’

Bebo now traveled to Vicenza, and opened the whole matter to Bibboni, who weighed it well, and at last, being convinced that the Duke’s commission to his comrade was bona fide, determined to take his share in the undertaking.  The two agreed to have no accomplices.  They went to Venice, and ‘I,’ says Bibboni, ’being most intimately acquainted with all that city, and provided there with many friends, soon quietly contrived to know where Lorenzino lodged, and took a room in the neighborhood, and spent some days in seeing how we best might rule our conduct.’  Bibboni soon discovered that Lorenzino never left his palace; and he therefore remained in much perplexity, until, by good luck, Ruberto Strozzi arrived from France in Venice, bringing in his train a Navarrese servant, who had the nickname of Spagnoletto.  This fellow was a great friend of the bravo.  They met, and Bibboni told him that he should like to go and kiss the hands of Messer Ruberto, whom he had known in Rome.  Strozzi inhabited the same palace as Lorenzino.  ’When we arrived there, both Messer Ruberto and Lorenzino were leaving the house, and there were around them so many gentlemen and other persons, that I could not present myself, and both straightway stepped into the gondola.  Then I, not having seen Lorenzino for a long while past, and because he was very quietly attired, could not recognize the man exactly, but only as it were between certainty and doubt.  Wherefore I said to Spagnoletto, “I think I know that gentleman, but don’t remember where I saw him.”  And Messer Ruberto was giving him his right hand.  Then Spagnoletto answered, “You know him well enough; he is Messer Lorenzino.  But see you tell this to nobody.  He goes by the name of Messer Dario, because he lives in great fear for his safety, and people don’t know that he is now in Venice.”  I answered that I marveled much, and if I could have helped him, would have done so willingly.  Then I asked where they were going, and he said, to dine with Messer Giovanni della Casa, who was the Pope’s Legate.  I did not leave the man till I had drawn from him all I required.’