on the fixed day.  Their victim not appearing in the cathedral at the hour when they expected him, the two conspirators ran to the palace of the Medici and induced him to accompany them.  Giuliano then took his place in the chancel of the Cathedral, and as the officiating priest raised the Host—­the sign agreed upon—­Bernardo stabbed the unsuspecting Giuliano in the breast with a short sword; Giuliano stepped backwards and fell dead.  The attempt on Lorenzo’s life however, by the other conspirators at the same moment, failed of success.  Bernardo no sooner saw that Lorenzo tried to make his escape towards the sacristy, than he rushed upon him, and struck down Francesco Nori who endeavoured to protect Lorenzo.  How Lorenzo then took refuge behind the brazen doors of the sacristy, and how, as soon as Giuliano’s death was made known, the further plans of the conspirators were defeated, while a terrible vengeance overtook all the perpetrators and accomplices, this is no place to tell.  Bernardo Bandini alone seemed to be favoured by fortune; he hid first in the tower of the Cathedral, and then escaped undiscovered from Florence.  Poliziano, who was with Lorenzo in the Cathedral, says in his ’Conjurationis Pactianae Commentarium’:  “Bandinus fugitans in Tiphernatem incidit, a quo in aciem receptus Senas pervenit.”  And Gino Capponi in summing up the reports of the numerous contemporary narrators of the event, says:  “Bernardo Bandini ricoverato in Costantinopoli, fu per ordine del Sultano preso e consegnato a un Antonio di Bernardino dei Medici, che Lorenzo aveva mandato apposta in Turchia:  cosi era grande la potenza di quest’ uomo e grande la voglia di farne mostra e che non restasse in vita chi aveagli ucciso il fratello, fu egli applicato appena giunto” (Storia della Republica di Firenze II, 377, 378).  Details about the dates may be found in the Chronichetta di Belfredello Strinati Alfieri:  “Bernardo di Bandino Bandini sopradetto ne venne preso da Gostantinopoti a di 14.  Dicembre 1479 e disaminato, che fu al Bargello, fu impiccato alle finestre di detto Bargello allato alla Doana a di 29.  Dicembre MCCCCLXXIX che pochi di stette.”  It may however be mentioned with reference to the mode of writing the name of the assassin that, though most of his contemporaries wrote Bernardo Bandini, in the Breve Chronicon Caroli Petri de Joanninis he is called Bernardo di Bandini Baroncelli; and, in the Sententiae Domini Matthaei de Toscana, Bernardus Joannis Bandini de Baroncellis, as is written on Leonardo’s drawing of him when hanged.  Now VASARI, in the life of Andrea del Castagno (Vol.  II, 680; ed.  Milanesi 1878), tells us that in 1478 this painter was commissioned by order of the Signoria to represent the members of the Pazzi conspiracy as traitors, on the facade of the Palazzo del Podesta—­the Bargello.  This statement is obviously founded on a mistake, for Andrea del Castagno was already dead in 1457.  He had however been commissioned