was the period when the least blood was shed! It was in the time of peace, that conspiracy, poison, assassination, and murder, raged with the greatest fury. There is not a single page of their history, which is not polluted with the recital of these crimes in the numerous sovereignties of Italy. It was in the seeming demonstrations of friendship, in the rejoicings of a festival, it was at the entrance of the nuptial bed that a husband was massacred by concealed assassins hired by his wife. It was in the temple, during the performance of the holiest offices. of religion, that priests and cardinals themselves used the assassin's dagger, and gave the signal for carnage, and, as Machiavelli justly observes, war was only really made in time of peace.
"It was necessary, therefore, in attacking such enemies, to employ the same arms that they managed so successfully—being perfidy and cunning, for force alone would have been entirely misplaced."
The general reader, who has hitherto
