ty alone, for the whole country was divided upon it, so that the
Captains of the Six Parts, and whoever were attached to the Guelphic
party or the well-being of the republic, were very much afraid that this
new division would occasion the destruction of the city, and give new
life to the Ghibelline faction. They, therefore, sent again to Pope
Boniface, desiring that, unless he wished that city which had always
been the shield of the church should either be ruined or become
Ghibelline, he would consider some means for her relief. The
pontiff thereupon sent to Florence, as his legate, Cardinal Matteo
d'Acquasparta, a Portuguese, who, finding the Bianchi, as the most
powerful, the least in fear, not quite submissive to him, he interdicted
the city, and left it in anger, so that greater confusion now prevailed
than had done previously to his coming.

The minds of men being in great excitement, it happened that at a
funeral which many of the Donati and the Cerchi attended, they first
came to words and then to arms, from which, however, nothing but merely
tumult resulted at the moment. However, having each retired to their
houses, the Cerchi determined to attack the Donati, but, by the valor
of Corso, they were repulsed and great numbers of them wounded. The city
was in arms. The laws and the Signory were set at nought by the rage
of the nobility, and the best and wisest citizens were full of
apprehension. The Donati and their followers, being the least powerful,
were in the greatest fear, and to provide for their safety they called
together Corso, the Captains of the Parts, and the other leaders of the
Neri, and resolved to apply to the pope to appoint some personage of
royal blood, that he might reform Florence; thinking by this means to
overcome the Bianchi. Their meeting and determination became known to
the Priors, and the adverse party represented it as a conspiracy against
the liberties of the republic. Both parties being in arms, the Signory,
one of whom at that time was the poet Dante, took courage, and from his
advice and prudence, caused the people to rise for the preservation of
order, and being joined by many from the country, they compelled the
leaders of both parties to lay aside their arms, and banished Corso,
with many of the Neri. And as an evidence of the impartiality of their
motives, they also banished many of the Bianchi, who, however, soon
afterward, under pretense of some justifiable cause, returned.