n cried "No!"
And even as she did so she reeled backward in a swoon, and would have
fallen upon the marble pavement if Messer Severo, that was watching her,
had not sprung timely forward and caught her in his arms.

XVIII

A WORD FOR MESSER SIMONE

I must, in the fulness of my heart, agree with those that speak in favor
of Messer Simone dei Bardi. It is the native, intimate, and commendable
wish of a man to abolish his enemies--I speak here after the fashion of
the worldling that I was, for the cell and the cloister have no concern
with mortal passions and frailties--and Messer Simone was in this, as in
divers other qualities, of a very manly disposition. He thought in all
honesty that it would be very good for him to be the ruler of Florence,
yet, also, and no less, that it would be very good for Florence to be
ruled by him. This is the way of such great personages, as indeed it is
the way of meaner creatures: to persuade themselves very pleasantly that
what they desire for themselves they are justified in desiring on
account of the benefit their accomplished wishes must bear to others.

Messer Simone, having the idea once lodged in his skull--a
dwelling-place of unusual thickness, that was well made for keeping any
idea that ever entered it a prisoner--that it would be well for him to
take charge of Florence, had no room in his pate for tender or merciful
consideration of those that sought or seemed to seek to cross him in his
purpose. They were his enemies; there was no more to be said about it,
and for his enemies, when it was possible, he had ever a short way. Now,
Messer Guido Cavalcanti, and those of his inclining, were very curiously
and truly his enemies, and he had been longing for a great while to get
them out of the way of his ambitions and his purposes, yet could find no
ready means to compass their destruction. But of late he had found a new
enemy in the person of my friend Dante, and a formidable enemy for all
his seeming insignificance; and if Simone sought to crush Dante, I
cannot blame him for the attempt, however much I may rejoice in his
failure.

I believe Messer Simone to have been as much in love with Monna Beatrice
as it was humanly possible for such a man to be in love with such a
maid. He was in love, of course, with the great houses that Messer Folco
owned, with the broad lands that fattened Messer Folco's vineyards; for
though he had houses of his own and broad lands in abundance