That great lottery-bank, which was called the Court
of Rome, accustomed people to a need of excitement, which found its
satisfaction in games of hazard during the intervals between one
intrigue and another. We read, for example, how Franceschetto Cibo, in
two games with the Cardinal Raffaello Riario, lost no less than 14,000
ducats, and afterwards complained to the Pope that his opponent has
cheated him. Italy has since that time been the home of the lottery.
It was to the imagination of the Italians that the peculiar character
of their vengeance was due. The sense of justice was, indeed, one and
the same throughout Europe, and any violation of it, so long as no
punishment was inflicted, must have been felt in the same manner. But
other nations, though they found it no easier to forgive, nevertheless
forgot more easily, while the Italian imagination kept the picture of
the wrong alive with frightful vividness. The fact that, according to
the popular morality, the avenging of blood is a duty--a duty often
performed in a way to make us shudder--gives to this passion a peculiar
and still firmer basis. The government and the tribunals recognize its
existence and justification, and only attempt to keep it within certain
limits. Even among the peasantry, we read of Thyestean banquets and
mutual assassination on the widest scale.
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