Chapter 39 - Page 2

This feeling of Bartolommeo Orlandini was known to other citizens, so
that they easily persuaded him to put Baldaccio to death, and at one
avenge himself, and deliver his country from a man whom they must
either retain at great peril, or discharge to their greater confusion.
Bartolommeo having therefore resolved to murder him, concealed in his
own apartment at the palace several young men, all armed; and
Baldaccio, entering the piazza, whither it was his daily custom to
come, to confer with the magistrates concerning his command, the
Gonfalonier sent for him, and he, without any suspicion, obeyed.
Meeting him in the corridor, which leads to the chambers of the
Signory, they took a few turns together discoursing of his office,
when being close to the door of the apartments in which the assassins
were concealed, Bartolommeo gave them the signal, upon which they
rushed out, and finding Baldaccio alone and unarmed, they slew him,
and threw the body out of the window which looks from the palace
toward the dogano, or customhouse. It was thence carried into the
piazza, where the head being severed, it remained the whole day
exposed to the gaze of the people. Baldaccio was married, and had only
one child, a boy, who survived him but a short time; and his wife,
Annalena, thus deprived of both husband and offspring, rejected every
proposal for a second union. She converted her house into a monastery,
to which she withdrew, and, being joined by many noble ladies, lived
in holy seclusion to the end of her days. The convent she founded, and
which is named from her, preserves her story in perpetual remembrance.

This circumstance served to weaken Neri's power, and made him lose
both influence and friends. Nor did this satisfy the citizens who held
the reins of government; for it being ten years since their
acquisition of power, and the authority of the Balia expired, many
began to exhibit more boldness, both in words and deeds, than seemed
consistent with their safety; and the leaders of the party judged,
that if they wished to preserve their influence, some means must be
adopted to increase it. To this end, in 1444 the councils created a
new Balia, which reformed the government, gave authority to a limited
number to create the Signory, re-established the Chancery of
Reformations, depriving Filippo Peruzzi of his office of president in
it, and appointing another wholly under their influence. They
prolonged the term of exile to those who were banished; put Giovanni
di Simone Vespucci in prison; deprived the Accoppiatori of their
enemies of the honors of government, and with them the sons of Piero
Baroncelli, the whole of the Seragli, Bartolommeo Fortini, Francesco
Castellani, and many others. By these means they