s Providence has implanted in the hearts of
foxes and hyenas and other such wild beasts, so Messer Simone, for all
his bestiality, could be cunning enough when it served his ends, as you
shall presently learn.

In a little while Messer Simone began to speak again, and to tell his
hearers of the plan which he had formed for the service of Florence and
the confusion of her enemies. This plan, as you already know, was to be
furthered by the enrollment of all such among the youth of Florence as
desired to prove themselves true patriots into a body which was to be
known by the high-sounding name of the Company of Death, the meaning of
this title being that those who so enrolled themselves were prepared at
any moment to give their lives for the advantage of the mother-city.
Messer Simone's plan had, as we now learned, been applauded by all the
magnates, such as Messer Corso Donati and Messer Vieri dei Cerchi, and
had received the approval of the priors of the city. As the scheme was
due to Messer Simone, it was agreed on all hands that he should be its
leader so long as the Republic of Florence was in a state of war.
Whoever had taught him his lesson, Messer Simone had learned it
creditably enough. He talked well, and while you listened to him it was
hard not to feel that the Company of Death was indeed a very noble and
hopeful thought, and that it might very well be the duty of all
honorable patriots to join it. But such thoughts might have cooled off
under reflection and deliberation if Messer Simone had not been at the
pains to prevent reflection and deliberation by a cunning stroke of
policy.

So he pitched his loud voice some notes higher, bellowing like a bull of
Bashan as he rolled off sonorous sentences very deftly learned and
remembered, in which glory and the service of the state and the example
of old Rome were cleverly compounded into a most patriotic pasty. Even
as he was in the thick of his speaking there came a flourish of trumpets
at the door, and to the sound of that music there came into the room a
brace of pages that were habited in cloth of gold, and that bore on
their breasts the badge that showed them to be the servants of Messer
Simone. This pair of pages carried between them a mighty gold charger,
and on this charger lay a huge book of white vellum that was bound and
clasped in gold. These pages were followed by other two pages, one of
whom carried ink in a great golden ink-horn and sand in a golden b