Commentary on the Pazzi Conspiracy

...with wondrous love and wondrous piety, he ascended the stairs. And while he looked down into the temple—where there were musical organs—he sought it in haste. He immediately understood the crime from the corpse of Giuliano, which he had seen lying prostrate. He saw that those standing by the doors were friends, and ordered them to be opened. They, in crowds, received Lorenzo into a band of armed men. To the house perdispendia lest the corpse of Giuliano begin to be produced. I went straight home; I found Giuliano, finished off by many wounds and defiled by much blood, lying miserably. There, reeling and—due to the magnitude of the grief—scarcely in control of my senses, I was lifted up by certain friends and led to my own house. Everything there was full of armed men; everything resounded with the cries of those showing favor. The roof echoed with the din and the voices. You could see boys, old men, young men, the sacred and the profane, all taking up arms, defending the Medici house as if it were the public safety of all. Meanwhile, the Pisan prelate summoned Cesare Petrucci, the Gonfalonier of Justice (as they say), into a colloquy with the witnesses removed, with the intention of slaughtering the man. He said he wished to report certain things in the Pope's name. When Cesare observed him trembling beyond measure, he suspected treachery and stirred up the bailiffs to arms. Salviati, perturbed by fear, rushed out from the room. He ran into the son of Jacopo Poggio and, being a man of huge spirit, he grabbed him by the hair and threw him down, ordering the guards to keep him until he could be dealt with. Soon, he escaped in haste to the highest tower of the palace with a group of masters. There, as he himself was, he defended the doors with a kitchen spit, for fear and anger had offered him that weapon. He defended his own safety and the public safety with great presence of mind, most fiercely. Meanwhile, others acted manfully, each for his own part. Frequent...