ABSOLUTE POWER IN EUROPE *2%7 "We learn by experience in our own time," says he, "that among the princes those who have done great things are those who have taken little account of their oaths and who have known how, through a mere ruse, to turn the heads of other men. A prudent seignior cannot and ought not to keep his word when that is injurious to him and when the motives which induced him to give his promise no longer exist. Be- sides, a prince has never wanted for legitimate reasons to color his failure to keep his word; but he must color it well, and be a great dissembler." The perfect prince whom Machiavelli gives us for a model is Caesar Bor- gia, who, during his whole life, never failed to "play the lion in the skin of a fox/' This Borgia amused himself in killing the condemned by shooting arrows into their bodies, and he massacred his enemies after he had promised to spare their lives. When he had caused several seigniors to be strangled at Sinigaglia after having taken them in an ambuscade, Machia- velli, who had been present, sent to the governors of Florence a special report entitled, "Description of the method employed by the Duke of Valentinois in order to kill Vitellozo, Oliveiro, Seigneur Pagolo and Duke Orsini," and he ends thus: "It has seemed proper for me to write out the details of this affair, and I believe it will be agreeable to you by reason of the character of the deed, which is at every point rare and memorable." Machiavelli was first of all an Italian patriot; he wanted a prince powerful enough to drive the "Bar- barians" (the French and Spanish) from Italy; and, convinced that a prince would be powerful in Italy