followed by our ruin. Oh! unhappy states, which have to guard against
their oppressor; but much more wretched those who have to trust to
mercenary and faithless arms like thine! May our example instruct
posterity, since that of Thebes and Philip of Macedon, who, after
victory over her enemies, from being her captain became her foe and her
prince, could not avail us.

"The only fault of which we are conscious is our over-weening confidence
in one whom we ought not to have trusted; for thy past life, thy
restless mind, incapable of repose, ought to have put us on our guard;
neither ought we to have confided in one who betrayed the lord of Lucca,
set a fine upon the Florentines and the Venetians, defied the duke,
despised the king, and besides all this, persecuted the church of God,
and the Divinity himself with innumerable atrocities. We ought not to
have fancied that so many potentates possessed less influence over the
mind of Francesco Sforza, than the Milanese; or that he would preserve
unblemished that faith towards us which he had on so many occasions
broken with them. Still this want of caution in us does not excuse the
perfidy in thee; nor can it obliterate the infamy with which our just
complaints will blacken thy character throughout the world, or prevent
the remorse of thy conscience, when our arms are used for our own
destruction; for thou wilt see that the sufferings due to parricides are
fully deserved by thee. And though ambition should blind thine eyes, the
whole world, witness to thine iniquity, will compel thee to open them;
God himself will unclose them, if perjuries, if violated faith, if
treacheries displease him, and if, as ever, he is still the enemy of the
wicked. Do not, therefore, promise thyself any certainty of victory; for
the just wrath of the Almighty will weigh heavily upon thee; and we are
resolved to lose our liberty only with our lives; but if we found we
could not ultimately defend it, we would submit ourselves to anyone