at there should be formed three new companies of the arts;
namely, one for the wool combers and dyers, one for the barbers,
doublet-makers, tailors, and such like, and the third for the lowest
class of people. They required that the three new arts should furnish
two Signors; the fourteen minor arts, three; and that the Signory should
provide a suitable place of assembly for them. They also made it a
condition that no member of these companies should be expected during
two years to pay any debt that amounted to less than fifty ducats; that
the bank should take no interest on loans already contracted, and that
only the principal sum should be demanded; that the condemned and the
banished should be forgiven, and the admonished should be restored to
participation in the honors of government. Besides these, many other
articles were stipulated in favor of their friends, and a requisition
made that many of their enemies should be exiled and admonished. These
demands, though grievous and dishonorable to the republic, were for fear
of further violence granted, by the joint deliberation of the Signors,
Colleagues, and Council of the people. But in order to give it full
effect, it was requisite that the Council of the Commune should also
give its consent; and, as they could not assemble two councils during
the same day it was necessary to defer it till the morrow. However the
trades appeared content, the plebeians satisfied; and both promised,
that these laws being confirmed, every disturbance should cease.

On the following morning, while the Council of the Commune were in
consultation, the impatient and volatile multitude entered the piazza,
under their respective ensigns, with loud and fearful shouts,
which struck terror into all the Council and Signory; and Guerrente
Marignolli, one of the latter, influenced more by fear than anything
else, under pretense of guarding the lower doors, left the chamber and
fled to his house. He was unable to conceal himself from the multitude,
who, however, took no notice, except that, upon seeing him, they
insisted that all the Signors should quit the palace, and declared
that if they refused to comply, their houses should be burned and their
families put to death.

The law had now been passed; the Signors were in their own apartments;
the Council had descended from the chamber, and without leaving the
palace, hopeless of saving the city, they remained in the lodges and
courts below, overwhelm