the next day was palm sunday, or olive sunday, as it was chiefly called in the olive-growing valdarno; and the morning sun shone with a more delicious clearness for the yesterday’s rain. once more savonarola mounted the pulpit in san marco, and saw a flock around him whose faith in him was still unshaken; and this morning in calm and sad sincerity he declared himself ready to die: in front of all visions he saw his own doom. once more he uttered the benediction, and saw the faces of men and women lifted towards him in venerating love. then he descended the steps of the pulpit and turned away from that sight for ever.
for before the sun had set florence was in an uproar. the passions which had been roused the day before had been smouldering through that quiet morning, and had now burst out again with a fury not unassisted by design, and not without official connivance. the uproar had begun at the duomo in an attempt of some compagnacci to hinder the evening sermon, which the piagnoni had assembled to hear. but no sooner had men’s blood mounted and the disturbances had become an affray than the cry arose, ‘to san marco! the fire to san marco!’
and long before the daylight had died, both the church and convent were being besieged by an enraged and continually increasing multitude. not without resistance. for the monks, long conscious of growing hostility without, had arms within their walls, and some of them fought as vigorously in their long white tunics as if they had been knights templars. even the command of savonarola could not prevail against the impulse to self-defence in arms that were still muscular under the dominican serge. there were laymen too who had not chosen to depart, and some of them fought fiercely: there was firing from the high altar close by the great crucifix, there was pouring of stones and hot embers from the convent roof, there was close fighting with swords in the cloisters. notwithstanding the force of the assailants, the attack lasted till deep night.
the demonstrations of the government had all been against the convent; early in the attack guards had been sent for, not to disperse the assailants, but to command all within the convent to lay down their arms, all laymen to depart from it, and savonarola himself to quit the florentine territory within twelve hours. had savonarola quitted the convent then, he could hardly have escaped being torn to pieces; he was willing to go, but his friends hindered him. it was felt to be a great risk even for some laymen of high name to depart by the garden wall, but among those who had chosen to do so was francesco valori, who hoped to raise rescue from without.
and now when it was deep night — when the struggle could hardly have lasted much longer, and the compagnacci might soon have carried their swords into the library, where savonarola was praying with the brethren who had either not taken up arms or had laid them down at his command — there came a second body of guards, commissioned by the signoria to demand the persons of fra girolamo and his two coadjutors, fra domenico and fra salvestro.
loud was the roar of triumphant hate when the light of lanterns showed the frate issuing from the door of the convent with a guard who promised him no other safety than that of the prison. the struggle now was, who should get first in the stream that rushed up the narrow street to see the prophet carried back in ignominy to the piazza where he had braved it yesterday — who should be in the best place for reaching his ear with insult, nay, if possible, for smiting him and kicking him. this was not difficult for some of the armed compagnacci who were not prevented from mixing themselves with the guards.
when savonarola felt himself dragged and pushed along in the midst of that hooting multitude; when lanterns were lifted to show him deriding faces; when he felt himself spit upon, smitten and kicked with grossest words of insult, it seemed to him that the worst bitterness of life was past. if men judged him guilty, and were bent on having his blood, it was only death that awaited him. but the worst drop of bitterness can never be wrung on to our lips from without: the lowest depth of resignation is not to be found in martyrdom; it is only to be found when we have covered our heads in silence and felt, ‘i am not worthy to be a martyr; the truth shall prosper, but not by me.’
but that brief imperfect triumph of insulting the frate, who had soon disappeared under the doorway of the old palace, was only like the taste of blood to the tiger. were there not the houses of the hypocrite’s friends to be sacked? already one-half of the armed multitude, too much in the rear to share greatly in the siege of the convent, had been employed in the more profitable work of attacking rich houses, not with planless desire for plunder, but with that discriminating selection of such as belonged to chief piagnoni, which showed that the riot was under guidance, and that the rabble with clubs and staves was well officered by sword-girt compagnacci. was there not — next criminal after the frate — the ambitious francesco valori, suspected of wanting with the frate’s help to make himself a doge or gonfaloniere for life? and the grey-haired man who, eight months ago, had lifted his arm and his voice in such ferocious demand for justice on five of his fellow-citizens, only escaped from san marco to experience what others called justice — to see his house surrounded by an angry, greedy multitude, to see his wife shot dead with an arrow, and to be himself murdered, as he was on his way to answer a summons to the palazzo, by the swords of men named ridolfi and tornabuoni.
in this way that masque of the furies, called riot, was played on in florence through the hours of night and early morning.
but the chief director was not visible: he had his reasons for issuing his orders from a private retreat, being of rather too high a name to let his red feather be seen waving amongst all the work that was to be done before the dawn. the retreat was the same house and the same room in a quiet street between santa croce and san marco, where we have seen tito paying a secret visit to dolfo spini. here the captain of the compagnacci sat through this memorable night, receiving visitors who came and went, and went and came, some of them in the guise of armed compagnacci, others dressed obscurely and without visible arms. there was abundant wine on the table, with drinking-cups for chance comers; and though spini was on his guard against excessive drinking, he took enough from time to time to heighten the excitement produced by the news that was being brought to him continually.
among the obscurely-dressed visitors ser ceccone was one of the most frequent, and as the hours advanced towards the morning twilight he had remained as spini’s constant companion, together with francesco cei, who was then in rather careless hiding in florence, expecting to have his banishment revoked when the frate’s fall had been accomplished.
the tapers had burnt themselves into low shapeless masses, and holes in the shutters were just marked by a sombre outward light, when spini, who had started from his seat and walked up and down with an angry flush on his face at some talk that had been going forward with those two unmilitary companions, burst out —
‘the devil spit him! he shall pay for it, though. ha, ha! the claws shall be down on him when he little thinks of them. so he was to be the great man after all! he’s been pretending to chuck everything towards my cap, as if i were a blind beggarman, and all the while he’s been winking and filling his own scarsella. i should like to hang skins about him and set my hounds on him! and he’s got that fine ruby of mine, i was fool enough to give him yesterday. malediction! and he was laughing at me in his sleeve two years ago, and spoiling the best plan that ever was laid. i was a fool for trusting myself with a rascal who had long-twisted contrivances that nobody could see to the end of but himself.’
‘a greek, too, who dropped into florence with gems packed about him,’ said francesco cei, who had a slight smile of amusement on his face at spini’s fuming. ‘you did not choose your confidant very wisely, my dolfo.’
‘he’s a cursed deal cleverer than you, francesco, and handsomer too,’ said spini, turning on his associate with a general desire to worry anything that presented itself.
‘i humbly conceive,’ said ser ceccone, ‘that messer francesco’s poetic genius will outweigh —’
‘yes, yes, rub your hands! i hate that notary’s trick of yours,’ interrupted spini, whose patronage consisted largely in this sort of frankness. ‘but there comes taddeo, or somebody: now’s the time! what news, eh?’ he went on, as two compagnacci entered with heated looks.
‘bad!’ said one. ‘the people have made up their minds they were going to have the sacking of soderini’s house, and now they have been balked we shall have them turning on us, if we don’t take care. i suspect there are some mediceans buzzing about among them, and we may see them attacking your palace over the bridge before long, unless we can find a bait for them another way.’
‘i have it!’ said spini, and seizing taddeo by the belt he drew him aside to give him directions, while the other went on telling cei how the signoria had interfered about soderini’s house.
‘ecco!’ exclaimed spini, presently, giving taddeo a slight push towards the door. ‘go, and make quick work.’
