SAVONAROLA
for his subjects. I told him that he must stand well with Florence, and act well by Florence, and that if he would not do it for love he should do it perforce; that if he should so act it will be well with him, but woe to him if he does not so act; and I told him in detail (tho I will not tell you, for it is not fitting that I should) what will befall him. He heard me with kindness and promised me to do what I bade him, and he promised it to you, and I tell you again that if he does not fulfil what he has promised per amore he shall do it perforce. And it is God Himself, who speaks in me, who will make him do it.
This I say in conclusion, that God has opened His hand to this "barber,"[1] the king of France, and has given him all that he wanted in Italy; but if he fails to do what I have told him, I tell you, and I would have all the world to know, that God will withdraw His hand. And if he fails to perform for the Florentines what I have bidden him to do, nevertheless we shall have everything, if not of his good will, then perforce. Meanwhile our arms must be prayer and fasting.
- ↑ Mr. Lucas explains that this is an allusion to the "hired razor" of Isaiah vii:20. It was one of Savonarola's favorite predictions that God would send "many barbers" into Italy, of whom Charles VIII. was only the first.
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