ability
to resist. The king, finding he could not enter by the Val d'Arno, as he
had first intended, both because Cennina had been already retaken, and
because the Florentines were now in some measure prepared for their
defense, turned toward Volterra, and occupied many fortresses in that
territory. Thence he proceeded toward Pisa, and with the assistance of
Fazio and Arrigo de' Conti, of the Gherardesca, took some castles, and
issuing from them, assailed Campiglia, but could not take it, the place
being defended by the Florentines, and it being now in the depth of
winter. Upon this the king, leaving garrisons in the places he had taken
to harass the surrounding country, withdrew with the remainder of his
army to quarters in the Siennese. The Florentines, aided by the season,
used the most active exertions to provide themselves troops, whose
captains were Federigo, lord of Urbino, and Gismondo Malatesti da
Rimino, who, though mutual foes, were kept so united by the prudence
of the commissaries, Neri di Gino and Bernardetto de' Medici, that they
broke up their quarters while the weather was still very severe and
recovered not only the places that had been taken in the territory of
Pisa, but also the Pomerancie in the neighborhood of Volterra, and so
checked the king's troops, which at first had overrun the Maremma, that
they could scarcely retain the places they had been left to garrison.

Upon the return of the spring the commissaries halted with their whole
force, consisting of five thousand horse and two thousand foot, at the
Spedaletto. The king approached with his army, amounting to fifteen
thousand men, within three miles of Campiglia, but when it was expected
he would attack the place he fell upon Piombino, hoping, as it was
insufficiently provided, to take it with very little trouble, and thus
acquire a very important position, the loss of which would be severely
felt by the Florentines; for from it he would be able to exhaust them
with a long war, obtain his own provision by sea, and harass the whole
territory of Pisa. They were greatly alarmed at this attack, and,
considering that if they could remain with their army among the woods
of Campiglia, the king would be compelled to retire either in defeat
or disgrace. With this view they equipped four galleys at Livorno, and
having succeeded in throwing three hundred infantry into Piombino,
took up their own position at the Caldane, a place where it would be
difficu