صفحة 268 من 310

Castruccio thus released from this trouble, turned his attention

to affairs in Lucca, and in order that he should not again be

subject to the perils from which he had just escaped, he, under

various pretences and reasons, first wiped out all those who by

their ambition might aspire to the principality; not sparing one

of them, but depriving them of country and property, and those

whom he had in his hands of life also, stating that he had found

by experience that none of them were to be trusted. Then for his

further security he raised a fortress in Lucca with the stones of

the towers of those whom he had killed or hunted out of the

state.