"Hearken thou to my words," said he, "and grave them upon thy heart.

I warn thee, in God's name, that thou must show thyself merciful and forbearing to the people of Florence, if thou wouldest that He should aid thee in thy enterprise." Charles, who scarcely knew Savonarola by name, answered simply that he did not wish to do the Florentines any harm, but that he demanded a free passage, and all that had been promised him: "I wish to be received at Florence," he added, "to sign there a definitive treaty which shall settle everything." At these cold expressions the ambassadors withdrew in some disquietude.

Peter de' Medici, who was lightly confident, returned to Florence on the 8th of November, and attempted again to seize the supreme power.

A violent outbreak took place; Peter was as weak before the Florentine populace as he had been before the King of France; and, having been harried in his very palace, which was given up to pillage, it was only in the disguise of a monk that he was able, on the 9th of November, to get out of the city in company with his two brothers, Julian and Cardinal John de' Medici, of whom the latter was to be, ten years later, Pope Leo X.

Peter and his brothers having been driven out, the Florentines were anxious to be reconciled with Charles VIII.