His panic was due to psychological causes: it was the unavoidable reaction of one who thought himself capable of outwitting all and making a fool of the Pope himself, on suddenly discovering that he has been ‘found out’. His belief in himself as a superman was shattered, his self-esteem punctured and deflated. He returned to the Tuscan Embassy, in Niccolini’s words ‘more dead than alive’. From then on he was a broken man.
