Note 185 — Chapter V

Machiavelli has drawn a shrewd caution to conspirators from the failure of the attack upon Lorenzo. “It is necessary, in undertakings of this kind, to make use of men that have been sufficiently hardened and tried, and to trust no others, how courageous soever they may be accounted: for no man can answer even for his own resolution, if he have not thoroughly proved it before; for the confusion he must naturally be in at such a time may either make him drop the dagger out of his hand, or say something which may have the same effect. Lucilla, sister to Commodus, having spirited up Quintianus to kill her brother, he waited for him as he came to the amphitheatre, and stepping up towards him with a drawn dagger in his hand, told him ‘the senate had sent him that:’ upon which he was immediately seized before he got near enough to stab him. Antonio de Volterra being fixed upon to kill Lorenzo de’ Medici, cried out, as he advanced to kill him, ‘Ha! traitor!’ which proved the preservation of Lorenzo, and the ruin of the conspiracy.”—Political Discourses, b. iii. 6.