He promptly retired to his own palace, expecting to find there his two brothers, Piero and Giuliano.

But they, under the protection of Orsini and his gendarmes, had made their escape by the Porto San Gallo.
The peril was imminent, and Gian dei Medici wished to follow their example; but wherever he went he was met by a clamour that grew more and more threatening.

At last, as he saw that the danger was constantly increasing, he dismounted from his horse and ran into a house that he found standing open.

This house by a lucky chance communicated with a convent of Franciscans; one of the friars lent the fugitive his dress, and the cardinal, under the protection of this humble incognito, contrived at last to get outside Florence, and joined his two brothers in the Apennines.
The same day the Medici were declared traitors and rebels, and ambassadors were sent to the King of France.

They found him at Pisa, where he was granting independence to the town which eighty-seven years ago had fallen under the rule of the Florentines.