From henceforth that thoroughly
immoral relation between the governments and their Condottieri, which
is characteristic of the fifteenth century, became more and more
common. An old story--one of those which are true and not true,
everywhere and nowhere--describes it as follows: The citizens of a
certain town (Siena seems to be meant) had once an officer in their
service who had freed them from foreign aggression; daily they took
counsel how to recompense him, and concluded that no reward in their
power was great enough, not even if they made him lord of the city. At
last one of them rose and said, 'Let us kill him and then worship him
as our patron saint.' And so they did, following the example set the
Roman senate with Romulus. In fact the Condottieri had reason to fear
none so much as their employers: if they were successful, they became
dangerous, and were put out of the way like Roberto Malatesta just
after the victory he had won for Sixtus IV (1482); if they failed, the
vengeance of the Venetians on Carmagnola showed to what risks they were
exposed (1432). It is characteristic of the moral aspect of the
situation that the Condottieri had often to give their wives and
children as hostages, and notwithstanding this, neither felt nor
inspired confidence. They must have been heroes of abnegation, natures
like Belisarius himself, not to be cankered by hatred and bitterness;
only the most perfect goodness could save them from the most monstrous
iniquity.
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