A TOMB AT RAVENNA 



able and learned director of the Uffizi, who has 

 devoted much time and study to the antiquities of 

 Ravenna, is of opinion that Paolo Orsini was the 

 assassin by whose hand Guidarello died. 1 But there 

 can be little doubt that Duke Valentino instigated 

 the crime if he did not actually strike the blow. 

 Up to the close of 1500, the knight of Ravenna, 

 it is plain, had enjoyed Cassar's confidence and held 

 a high post in his councils. But Guidarello's secret 

 correspondence with the Signory of Venice may well 

 have excited his suspicions, and Valentino was said 

 by those who knew him best never to forgive a wrong, 

 and never to allow an enemy to live. His vengeance 

 was apt to be swift and sudden, and eighteen months 

 later the same fate befell Guidarello's most distin- 

 guished colleagues, Paolo Orsini, Vitellozzo, Gravina 

 and Oliverotto da Fermo, who were treacherously 

 seized and put to death by the Duke's orders an act 

 described in a famous phrase of the Machiavelli as 

 " il bellissimo inganno di Sinigaglia " (the magnificent 

 deceit of Sinigaglia). 



So the good knight Guidarello came to his end, 

 and Ravenna wept bitterly over " the flower which 

 had been plucked before its time," and lamented 

 her warrior's untimely end. His body was brought 

 home to his native city, and buried in the church 



1 Italia Artistica : Ravenna^ p. 83. La Statua di Guidarello, p. 2 1. 



247 



