oose to lead them. Yet the people had found a leader in Dante, whose
words had set their minds on fire, and the gradually increasing number
of the Reds that had made their way to the place and were clustered
about Guido Cavalcanti stiffened their fluent units into something like
a solidity of opposition. But the odds were amazingly on the side of the
Yellows in everything that was necessary for success, in readiness, in
discipline, in weapons, in stubbornness of determination to do the thing
they wished to do--as indifferent to the laws of the city as heedless of
the laws of Heaven. The points of the game were all in favor of Messer
Simone.

But when Messer Griffo of the Claw rode into the city at the head of his
levy of lances, with Monna Vittoria in her male attire riding by his
side, and the Dragon banner flapping over all, things began to wear a
very different face. Messer Griffo and his merry men forced their way
easily enough across the bridge, pushing steadily through the crowds
that gave way before them and cheered them as they passed, for Griffo of
the Claw was popular in Florence. The company of mercenaries, as I have
said, came to a halt by Messer Folco's house, and drew up in face of
Simone and his forces.

Now, when I came upon the scene, I was still a little dizzy with wine
and sleep, whose fumes my race through the streets of the city had not
wholly dissipated, but I was beginning to collect my senses and to
understand what was going forward. My Dante, standing with his drawn
sword in front of Folco's door, the few and frightened civic guards
about the Portinari palace, the group of Guido Cavalcanti and his
brethren of the Red, the Bull-face Bardi with a multitude behind him,
and in front of these the new-come Free Companions, calm as statues
behind their master and the man-woman by his side--all these made up
such a sight as I never saw before and have never seen since, though I
saw much in my time when I was a worldling, but naught to equal that
day's doings.

I have told you already how I forced and coaxed a passage through the
throng on the piazza as quickly as I could, with the aid of my cry,
"Make way for the Company of Death!" shouted with great assurance, as if
I had at my heels all who had enrolled themselves in that strange
brotherhood. As a fact, many of the company were ranked behind Messer
Simone, serving his cause, and of those that rode with me to Arezzo, the
most part were gathered toge