the leaders of this section of the citizens favored the plebeian cause from different motives.  Some sought only a way to riches and authority, which they could never have opened for them under the oligarchy contemplated by the Palleschi.  Others, styled Frateschi or Piagnoni, clung to the ideas of liberty which were associated with the high morality and impassioned creed of Savonarola.  These were really the backbone of the nation, the class which might have saved the state if salvation had been possible.  Another section, steeped in the study of ancient authors and imbued with memories of Roman patriotism, thought it still possible to secure the freedom of the state by liberal institutions.  These men we may call the Doctrinaires.  Their panacea was the establishment of a mixed form of government, such as that which Giannotti so learnedly illustrated.  To these parties must be added the red republicans, or Arrabbiati—­a name originally reserved for the worst adherents of the Medici, but now applied to fanatics of Jacobin complexion—­and the Libertines, who only cared for such a form of government as should permit them to indulge their passions.

Amid this medley of interests there resulted, as a matter of fact, two policies at the moment when the affairs of Florence, threatened by Pope and Emperor in combination, and deserted by France and the rest of Italy, grew desperate.  One was that of the Gonfalonier Capponi, who advocated moderate counsels and an accommodation with Clement VII.  The other was that of the Gonfalonier Carducci, who pushed things to extremities and used the enthusiasm of the Frateschi for sustaining the spirit of the people in the siege.[1] The latter policy triumphed over the former.  Its principles were an obstinate belief in Francis, though he had clearly turned a deaf ear to Florence; confidence in the generals, Baglioni and Colonna, who were privately traitors to the cause they professed to defend; and reliance on the prophecies of Savonarola, supported by the preaching of the Friars Foiano, Bartolommeo, and Zaccaria.  Ill-founded as it was in fact, the policy of Carducci had on its side all that was left of nobility, patriotism, and the fire of liberty among the Florentines.  In spite of the hopelessness of the attempt, we cannot now read without emotion how bravely and desperately those last champions of freedom fought, to maintain the independence of their city at any cost, and in the teeth of overwhelming opposition.  The memory of Savonarola was the inspiration of this policy.  Ferrucci was its hero.  It failed.  It was in vain that the Florentines had laid waste Valdarno, destroyed their beautiful suburbs, and leveled their crown of towers.  It was in vain that they had poured forth their treasures to the uttermost farthing, had borne plague and famine without a murmur, and had turned themselves at the call of their country into a nation of soldiers, Charles, Clement, the Palleschi, and Malatesta Baglioni—­enemies