Niccolo Machiavelli
Machiavelli, Niccolo

18 July
Sienna

LETTER II.

Magnificent Signori, etc.: —

I wrote to your Lordships at length yesterday and sent it by an express who should have arrived at the second hour of the night. I look for a reply at latest by to-morrow, so as to permit my return. This morning at the Duomo I was addressed by one Ser Paolo di Pietri di Paolo, who lived at Florence while banished from here. He began by telling me of his deep obligation to our city for having served him more than once as a refuge and shield in his adversity, and for the great kindness and benevolence shown him by our citizens. Amongst many other matters he mentioned Messer Francesco Gualterotti; at first he said that he did not wish to speak of public affairs, as he could not open his heart to me as he should desire, but he offered me his services for any personal or private matter. Nevertheless I led him on indirectly, so that after a good deal of talk we came to discuss the events of the day; and he assured me that D’ Alviano had actually started for Campiglia, and that Gonsalvo was to aid him with infantry, and perhaps even with the troops that were now at Piombino; and that the Venetians were to supply him with money, and that Sienna would permit him to force a passage through her territory, without, however, furnishing him troops, or giving him any other open support. But when I asked what D’ Alviano wanted to do at Campiglia, this Ser Paolo said: “Take that place, give the Pisans more room, and then act according to his success; but that he ought to remember that on a former occasion he came to the very gates, and that perhaps he might try the same thing now, and leave Campiglia aside.” And then he added, that he wondered much that our city had not been willing to make sure of him who governed here, by coming to some arrangement with him respecting Montepulciano, as had been several times proposed; and that it seemed to him that by such an arrangement you would be “selling the sun in July”An Italian proverb, which means to sell to any one what belongs to everybody.^* to the Siennese; for that when once masters of Pisa, not only Pandolfo, but Montepulciano, Sienna, and all the rest of Tuscany, would be at your discretion. I remarked to him

that the fault was theirs if no agreement had been concluded, for Florence had ever been disposed to do all that was reasonable; but that now it seemed to me that matters had come to that point that it was useless to talk of any agreement since Pandolfo had combined with Bartolommeo and his adherents. Whereupon he answered quickly, that I ought not to say so, for in his judgment the present moment was most favorable for you to effect an arrangement; but that no time was to be lost, as the negotiations between Pandolfo and the others amounted only to conferences and words, and that it would not cause Pandolfo much pain to deceive the Venetians, although they had already spent a good deal of money; and then he intimated to me that this money was paid through his hands. And in the same way, he said, Pandolfo would not mind deceiving Gonsalvo, for that both the Venetians and Gonsalvo were governed in this matter by the advice of Pandolfo, who had gained such influence with both that they believed and confided entirely in his intelligence. And that he believed that Pandolfo would gladly make an arrangement with you so as not to lose altogether the advantages of these movements, and fearing lest the whole responsibility should fall upon him as on a former occasion, and that thus an arrangement with you would be the safest thing for him.

To all this I replied that it was difficult on the one hand to believe that all these movements were of so much importance, and on the other, that Pandolfo could stop them at his pleasure; and therefore I imagined that Pandolfo would either not come to any agreement, or that, if he did, all these preparations had no other object than to alarm, but not injure us. That we were in condition not to fear even the most vigorous attacks, and much less any feeble ones; and then I told him the state of our forces and that of our allies. He answered, that the more secure you were, the better pleased was he; that he did not know whether this contemplated movement was great or little, but this much he knew, that whether great or little it depended altogether upon Pandolfo, whose brains had originated it all. And here he enlarged upon Pandolfo’s ability, referring again to the great credit which he had acquired everywhere, and that he had his foot, so to say, in a thousand stirrups, but so that he could withdraw it from them at his pleasure. And here he left me, having concluded by

saying that an arrangement with Pandolfo seemed to him of the greatest advantage for us.

As I wrote yesterday to your Lordships the substance of the conversation I had with that other friend, so I have deemed it proper to give you a full account of this one also. Both showed themselves in the beginning of their conversation dissatisfied with Pandolfo, but, as you will have observed, their conclusion was very different. I did not mention the name of the one yesterday, so as not to compromise him; but I gave you the name of the first one, for it seemed to me that his communications were less likely to expose him to danger, and so that your Lordships, knowing who it was, might be able to judge better what confidence to put in his statements. I have nothing else to write unless it be that I have omitted to inform your Lordships, in my letter of yesterday, that when Pandolfo told me, in my last conversation with him, that he would do all in his power to oppose D’Alviano, I replied that I believed it, having seen that he had sent to Florence to enlist infantry; in answer to which he said that the men enlisted at Florence were not for that purpose, but that one of his lately created captains of police had engaged thirty men, which statement I have since found to be true.

Since writing yesterday Pandolfo has sent to inform me that one Bastiano of Cortona, for a long while his barber, having gone to Cortona a few days since to assist at the marriage of his sister, has been detained by the commandant on suspicion of his being engaged in some conspiracy against the state. Pandolfo thinks that the truth must have been found out by this time, and desires that you would make him a present of this man, and release him. He requests me to ask this of your Lordships in his name, which I do herewith, and recommend myself to your Lordships, quæ bene valeant.

Servitor
Niccolo Machiavelli,
Secretary.
Sienna,
18 July, at the 15th hour.