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1885.] a parallel. "Diverse opinions and various decisions were agitated among the senators. Some declared that it was best to oppose in open war the forces of Philip, who would otherwise deceive them with fair words until he had overcome the Florentines. Others said that to leap into such an undertaking would be mere temerity, adding that it was an easy thing to begin a war but difficult to end it." The Senate of Venice had, however, another pleader at hand, whose eloquence was more convincing. When they had confused themselves with arguments for and against, the Doge, whose views were warlike, called for Carmagnola, who had been waiting in unaccustomed inaction to know what was to happen to him. All his wrongs had been revived by an attempt made to poison him in his retreat at Treviso by a Milanese exile who was sheltered there, and who hoped by this good deed to conciliate Philip and purchase his recall – a man who, like Carmagnola, had married a Visconti, and perhaps had some private family hatred to quicken his patriotic zeal. The attempt had been unsuccessful, and the would-be assassin had paid for it by his life. But the result had been to light into wilder flame than ever the fire of wrong in the fierce heart of the great captain, whose love had been turned into hatred by the ingratitude of his former masters and friends. He appeared before the wavering statesmen, who, between their ducats and their danger, could not come to any decision, flaming with wrath and energy. "Being of a haughty nature, una natura sdegnoso, he spoke bitterly against Philip and his ingratitude and perfidy," describing in hot words his own struggles and combats, the cities he had brought under Philip's sway, and the fame he had procured him, so that his name was known not only throughout all Italy, but even through Europe, as the master of Genoa. The rewards which Carmagnola had received, he declared proudly, were not rewards but his just hire and no more. And now quell' ingrato, whom he had served so well, had not only wounded his heart and his good name, for the sake of a set of lying youths – giovanetti dishonestissimi – and forced him into exile, but finally had attempted to kill him. But yet he had not been without good fortune, in that he was preserved from this peril; and though he had lost the country, in which he had left wife and children and much wealth, yet had he found another country where was justice, bounty, and every virtue – where every man got his due, and place and dignity were not given to villains! After this outburst of personal feeling, Carmagnola entered fully into the weightier parts of the matter, giving the eager senators to understand that Philip was not so strong as he seemed; that his money was exhausted, his citizens impoverished, his soldiers in arrears; that he himself, Carmagnola, had been the real cause of most of his triumphs; and that with his guidance and knowledge the Florentines themselves were stronger than Philip, the Venetians much stronger. He ended by declaring himself and all his powers at their service, and promising not only to "smash" Philip, but to increase the territory of the Venetians. Greater commanders they might have, and names more honoured, but none of better faith towards Venice, or of greater hatred towards the enemy.

Carmagnola's speech is not given in the first person like the others.