yielded and were safe.

This battle, from the circumstances which attended and followed it,
presents a striking example of the wretched state of military discipline
in those times. The enemy's forces being defeated and driven into the
Borgo, the commissaries desired to pursue them, in order to make the
victory complete, but not a single condottiere or soldier would obey,
alleging, as a sufficient reason for their refusal, that they must take
care of the booty and attend to their wounded; and, what is still more
surprising, the next day, without permission from the commissaries, or
the least regard for their commanders, they went to Arezzo, and, having
secured their plunder, returned to Anghiari; a thing so contrary to
military order and all subordination, that the merest shadow of a
regular army would easily and most justly have wrested from them
the victory they had so undeservedly obtained. Added to this, the
men-at-arms, or heavy-armed horse, who had been taken prisoners, whom
the commissaries wished to be detained that they might not rejoin the
enemy, were set at liberty, contrary to their orders. It is astonishing,
that an army so constructed should have sufficient energy to obtain
the victory, or that any should be found so imbecile as to allow such a
disorderly rabble to vanquish them. The time occupied by the Florentine
forces in going and returning from Arezzo, gave Niccolo opportunity of
escaping from the Borgo, and proceeding toward Romagna. Along with him
also fled the Florentine exiles, who, finding no hope of their return
home, took up their abodes in various parts of Italy, each according
to his own convenience. Rinaldo made choice of Ancona; and, to gain
admission to the celestial country, having lost the terrestrial, he
performed a pilgrimage to the holy sepulcher; whence having returned, he
died suddenly while at table at the celebration of the marriage of one
of his daughters; an instance of fortune's favor, in removing him from
the troubles of this world upon the least sorrowful day of his exile.
Rinaldo d'Albizzi appeared respectable under every change of condition;
and would have been more so had he lived in a united city, for many
qualities were injurious to him in a factious community, which in an
harmonious one would have done him honor.

When the forces returned from Arezzo, Niccolo being then gone, the
commissaries presented themselves at the Borgo, the people of which were
willing to submit