e of the
adverse party, and with loud cries of "people, arms, liberty, and death
to the tyrants," directed their course toward the New Market, and at the
end of the Calimala slew another. Pursuing their course with the same
cries, and finding no one join them in arms, they stopped at the Loggia
Nighittosa, where, from an elevated situation, being surrounded with
a great multitude, assembled to look on rather than assist them, they
exhorted the men to take arms and deliver themselves from the slavery
which weighed so heavily upon them; declaring that the complaints of the
discontented in the city, rather than their own grievances, had induced
them to attempt their deliverance. They had heard that many prayed to
God for an opportunity of avenging themselves, and vowed they would
use it whenever they found anyone to conduct them; but now, when the
favorable circumstances occurred, and they found those who were ready to
lead them, they stared at each other like men stupefied, and would wait
till those who were endeavoring to recover for them their liberty
were slain, and their own chains more strongly riveted upon them; they
wondered that those who were wont to take arms upon slight occasions,
remained unmoved under the pressure of so many and so great evils; and
that they could willingly suffer such numbers of their fellow-citizens
to be banished, so many admonished, when it was in their power to
restore the banished to their country, and the admonished to the honors
of the state. These words, although full of truth, produced no effect
upon those to whom they were addressed; for they were either restrained
by their fears, or, on account of the two murders which had been
committed, disgusted with the parties. Thus the movers of the tumult,
finding that neither words or deeds had force sufficient to stir anyone,
saw, when too late, how dangerous a thing it is to attempt to set a
people free who are resolved to be slaves; and, despairing of success,
they withdrew to the temple of Santa Reparata, where, not to save their
lives, but to defer the moment of their deaths, they shut themselves up.
Upon the first rumor of the affair, the Signory being in fear, armed and
secured the palace; but when the facts of the case were understood,
the parties known, and whither they had betaken themselves, their fears
subsided, and they sent the Capitano with a sufficient body of armed
men to secure them. The gates of the temple were forced with