Pazzi Conspiracy
No-Shows
Other things were supposed to be happening, too, that weren't. The mercenary troops of Tolentino and Giustini should be arriving, but there was no word of them. His own son, Francesco, should have been joining him in the piazza, triumphantly proclaiming the death of the tyrants. Instead, after a few minutes more, Jacopo's brother-in-law arrived with hard news. Francesco was badly injured. Lorenzo had survived and was in his home. The Palazzo had not been taken, and the people were not openly supportive. Messer Jacopo should flee the city, for his own safety.
It was good advice, for the Medici were already moving. The commune was moving. The gates of the city were being closed, and soon there would be no escape. All the while, the great vaca of the commune continued to cry out its alarm, echoed by church bells all over the city. It was probably this din that caused Tolentino and Giustini to turn around, for the alarm would have been echoed in the surrounding villages, for there was a parish church every two or three miles in every direction. The peasants responded by assembling and watching the roads. Seeing this activity, the mercenaries would have known that the plot was in trouble.