223, describes the conspirators rehearsing on a wooden puppet.
In the interval which elapsed between the rack and the pincers, Olgiati had time to address this memorable speech to the priest who urged him to repent: 'As for the noble action for which I am about to die, it is this which gives my conscience peace; to this I trust for pardon from the Judge of all.

Far from repenting, if I had to come ten times to life in order ten times to die by these same torments, I should not hesitate to dedicate my blood and all my powers to an object so sublime.' When the hangman stood above him, ready to begin the work of mutilation, he is said to have exclaimed: Mors acerba, fama perpetua, stabit vetus memora facti--my death is untimely, my fame eternal, the memory of the deed will last for aye.' He was only twenty-two years of age.[1] There is an antique grandeur about the outlines of this story, strangely mingled with mediaeval Catholicism in the details, which makes it typical of the Renaissance.

Conspiracies against rulers were common at the time in Italy; but none were so pure and honorable as this.

Of the Pazzi Conjuration (1478) which Sixtus IV.

directed to his everlasting infamy against the Medici, I shall have to speak in another place.