the merest justice, it
was every ready to risk its life cheerfully for the advantage of the
city, and, furthermore, for the sheer lust of fighting. What Messer
Simone had hoped to gain at Folco's house, and, indeed, had succeeded in
gaining, was the allegiance of certain young men of the Cavalcanti
inclining, adherents of the Reds, that were not in the natural way of
things affected over kindly to him. All this he had accomplished very
successfully. The heady enthusiasm upon which he had cunningly counted,
the presence of fair women whose sweet breaths are ever ready to fan
the flame of the war-like spirit, the stimulating influences of wine and
light and laughter and dancing--all these had played their parts in
furthering Messer Simone's aims by spurring the Florentine chivalry to a
pitch of exuberance, at which any proposal made in a sounding voice in
the name of the God of War might be relied upon to carry them away. As
you know, it did so carry them away, and Messer Simone's book was
scrawled thick with hurried signatures, and, best of all for his
pleasure, it carried at last the name of Messer Dante, and best of all,
perhaps, for his personal advantage, it carried the name of Messer Guido
Cavalcanti.

I know very well, looking back on those old days, that were so much
better than these new days, that if Messer Simone had failed to lure
Messer Dante into that immediate scheme of his, and had so compelled a
postponement of his revenge, he would still have carried out his purpose
of sending the others that were his enemies to their deaths. But, in his
piggish way, Messer Simone had a kind of knowledge of men. He that was
all ungenerous and bestial--he, this most unknightly giant--he could
realize, strangely enough, what a generous and uplifted nature might do
on certain occasions when the trumpets of the spirit were loudly
blowing. And it was a proof of his mean insight that he had spread his
net in the sight of the bird and had snared his quarry.

Having won so briskly the first move in his game, Messer Simone lost no
time in making the second move. Fortified, as he was, by the friendship
and the approval of certain of the leaders of the city, he could
confidently count upon immunity from blame if any seeming blunder of his
delivered to destruction a certain number of young gentlemen whose
opinions were none too popular with many of those in high office. So,
while still the flambeaux of the festival were burning, an