《君主论·第十九章·应当避免受轻视与憎恨》第4节
And, to reduce the matter into a small compass, I say that, on the side of the conspirator, there is nothing but fear, jealousy, prospect of punishment to terrify him; but on the side of the prince there is the majesty of the principality, the laws, the protection of friends and the state to defend him; so that, adding to all these things the popular goodwill, it is impossible that any one should be so rash as to conspire. For whereas in general the conspirator has to fear before the execution of his plot, in this case he has also to fear the sequel to the crime; because on account of it he has the people for an enemy, and thus cannot hope for any escape. Endless examples could be given on this subject, but I will be content with one, brought to pass within the memory of our fathers. Messer Annibale Bentivogli, who was prince in Bologna (grandfather of the present Annibale), having been murdered by the Canneschi, who had conspired against him, not one of his family survived but Messer Giovanni, who was in childhood: immediately after his assassination the people rose and murdered all the Canneschi. This sprung from the popular goodwill which the house of Bentivogli enjoyed in those days in Bologna; which was so great that, although none remained there after the death of Annibale who was able to rule the state, the Bolognese, having information that there was one of the Bentivogli family in Florence, who up to that time had been considered the son of a blacksmith, sent to Florence for him and gave him the government of their city, and it was ruled by him until Messer Giovanni came in due course to the government.
注释摘要
马基雅维利在此将讨论收束到一个极简明的力学对比上：阴谋者一方，只有恐惧、猜忌和刑罚的威慑；而君主一方，却拥有国家的威严、法律、友人的保护以及整个政权的防御机制。一旦再叠加上民众的善意，阴谋就几乎失去了可行的空间。这里的推理链条极其冷酷而清晰：他先预设了阴谋者在动手之前就已经处在精神煎熬之中，一旦失败则必死无疑；而如果这位君主还被人民所爱戴，阴谋者的处境就加…