e, we rode the latter part of our ride alone, as if
indeed we were the only attacking force, the while Messer Griffo
dissimulated his lances easily enough in the woods and valleys adjacent.
And when the Aretines perceived us, they shouted for satisfaction and
made to fall upon us pell-mell, having no heed of order or the
ordinances of war. Then it was, while they were in this hurly-burly,
that Messer Griffo launched his men upon them from the right and from
the left, and that the real business of the day began. For what seemed
to me quite a long space of time, though indeed the whole business
lasted little more than an hour, there was some very pretty fighting,
with the solution of the war-like riddle far from certain. For the
Aretines were more numerous than we expected by a good deal, and, for
all they were taken by surprise, they carried themselves, as I must
confess, with a very commendable display of valor.

To be entirely honest, I must confess that I remember very little about
the skirmish or scuffle or battle or whatever you may please to call it.
There was a great deal of charging and shouting, and though there were a
good many of us engaged on both sides on that field, it seemed to me, at
the time, as if I enjoyed a kind of isolation, and had no immediate, or
at least dangerous, concern with all those swords and lances that were
hacking and thrusting everywhere about me. I have since been told by
tough soldiers that when they were tender novices they felt much the
same as I felt in the clash of their first encounter, felt as if the
whole thing were a business that, however serious and significant to
others, was of no more moment than a pageant or a play to them
themselves that were having their first taste of war. Though I gave and
took some knocks as the others did, and shouted as they shouted, I had
at the time no fear, not because of my valor, but because of a sudden
numbing of my wits, which left me with no intelligence to do otherwise
than charge and shout and lay about me like the rest.

I am glad to record that Dante carried himself valiantly; not, indeed,
that I saw him at all till the tussle was over and such of our enemies
as were left taking to their heels as nimbly as might be. But I had it
on the word of Messer Guido, who could see as well as do, and who told
me the tale, that our friend bore himself most honorably and
courageously in the skirmish, which ended by beating back the
discomfited and