lt to attack them; and they thought it would be dangerous to
encamp among the thickets of the plain.

The Florentine army depended for provisions on the surrounding places,
which, being poor and thinly inhabited, had difficulty in supplying
them. Consequently the troops suffered, particularly from want of wine,
for none being produced in that vicinity, and unable to procure it from
more distant places, it was impossible to obtain a sufficient quantity.
But the king, though closely pressed by the Florentines, was well
provided except in forage, for he obtained everything else by sea. The
Florentines, desirous to supply themselves in the same manner, loaded
four vessels with provisions, but, upon their approach, they were
attacked by seven of the king's galleys, which took two of them and
put the rest to flight. This disaster made them despair of procuring
provisions, so that two hundred men of a foraging party, principally for
want of wine, deserted to the king, and the rest complained that
they could not live without it, in a situation where the heat was so
excessive and the water bad. The commissaries therefore determined
to quit the place, and endeavor to recover those castles which still
remained in the enemy's power; who, on his part, though not suffering
from want of provisions, and greatly superior in numbers, found his
enterprise a failure, from the ravages made in his army by those
diseases which the hot season produces in marshy localities; and which
prevailed to such an extent that many died daily, and nearly all were
affected. These circumstances occasioned overtures of peace. The king
demanded fifty thousand florins, and the possession of Piombino. When
the terms were under consideration, many citizens, desirous of peace,
would have accepted them, declaring there was no hope of bringing to a
favorable conclusion a war which required so much money to carry it on.
But Neri Capponi going to Florence, placed the matter in a more correct
light, and it was then unanimously determined to reject the proposal,
and take the lord of Piombino under their protection, with an alliance
offensive and defensive, provided he did not abandon them, but assist in
their defense as hitherto. The king being informed of this resolution,
saw that, with his reduced army, he could not gain the place, and
withdrew in the same condition as if completely routed, leaving behind
him two thousand dead. With the remainder of his sick troops he