the-prince

my fortune and abilities have gained, I have never married,
so that the love of children should never deflect my
mind from that gratitude which I owed to the children of
thy father. Thus I leave thee a vast estate, of which I am well
content, but I am deeply concerned, inasmuch as I leave it
thee unsettled and insecure. Thou hast the city of Lucca
on thy hands, which will never rest contented under they
government. Thou hast also Pisa, where the men are of nature
changeable and unreliable, who, although they may be
sometimes held in subjection, yet they will ever disdain to
serve under a Lucchese. Pistoia is also disloyal to thee, she
being eaten up with factions and deeply incensed against
thy family by reason of the wrongs recently inflicted upon
them. Thou hast for neighbours the offended Florentines,
injured by us in a thousand ways, but not utterly destroyed,
who will hail the news of my death with more delight than
they would the acquisition of all Tuscany. In the Emperor
and in the princes of Milan thou canst place no reliance, for
they are far distant, slow, and their help is very long in coming.
Therefore, thou hast no hope in anything but in thine
own abilities, and in the memory of my valour, and in the
prestige which this latest victory has brought thee; which, as
thou knowest how to use it with prudence, will assist thee
to come to terms with the Florentines, who, as they are suffering
under this great defeat, should be inclined to listen to
thee. And whereas I have sought to make them my enemies,
because I believed that war with them would conduce to
my power and glory, thou hast every inducement to make
friends of them, because their alliance will bring thee ad-
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