Final Vengeance
In April of 1488, almost exactly ten years after the murder of Giuliano and the attempt on his own life, Lorenzo de' Medici received a letter telling him that the one conspirator left alive, Count Girolamo Riario, had been assassinated.
In addition to Imola, Count Riario was Lord of Forli, a town fifty miles away from Florence. Though Lorenzo was not the author of Riario's assassination, he had kept watch on the Count's every move through a network of agents and diplomats, and through these same agents and diplomats had sown discontent in his lands throughout the previous decade.
On April 14, 1488, two Orsi brothers who enjoyed the privilege of "the gilded key" - meaning they had the right to call on the Count without invitation - entered the Palace and found Riario in the Hall of Nymphs in the company of a few servants. Drawing swords, the two hacked Riario to death as he scrambled under a table and screamed for help that never came. They then stripped the Count's clothes from his body and threw his naked corpse out a window onto the palace piazza below - an act that echoed the treatment received by the Pazzis and Archbishop Salviati at the hands of the Signoria and the Eight in 1478. The people of Forli rejoiced at Count Riario's death.
Lorenzo's vengeance for the Pazzi Conspiracy was complete.
Sevrin de Savage
April 14, Anno Societatis XXXIX