Such was the labyrinth of plot and counterplot, of force repelled by violence, in which the princes praised by Ariosto and by Tasso lived.
Isolated, crime-haunted, and remorseless, at the same time fierce and timorous, the despot not unfrequently made of vice a fine art for his amusement, and openly defied humanity.

His pleasures tended to extravagance.

Inordinate lust and refined cruelty sated his irritable and jaded appetites.

He destroyed pity in his soul, and fed his dogs with living men, or spent his brains upon the invention of new tortures.
From the game of politics again he won a feverish pleasure, playing for states and cities as a man plays chess, and endeavoring to extract the utmost excitement from the varying turns of skill and chance.

It would be an exaggeration to assert that all the princes of Italy were of this sort.