ther about Messer Guido Cavalcanti and
backed Dante's quarrel, and, indeed, the company never served together
as a company after that day. But the name was just then very pleasing to
Florentine ears, because of the little triumph over the Aretines, and so
the name of the company served me as a talisman to squeeze me through
the press to the front, and so to place myself by Guido's side.

Messer Simone glared very ferociously at the new-comers, at Griffo of
the Claw, that had lost him one toss already, and at the woman who rode
beside him so gay and debonair in her mannish habit--the woman he had
slighted, the woman who had, as he guessed, baffled his plans once, and
had now come, as he might be very sure, to baffle them again. It was
plain to him that he had lost the day. It needed no great tactician, no
strategist, to perceive that the coming of the _condottieri_ had turned
the scale against him. They were better weaponed than his men, and when
their strength was added to that of the adversaries already arrayed
against him, he was gravely outnumbered. The arrival of the mercenaries
had served to define the mood of many a waverer and to stiffen the
courage of many that had been against Simone all along, but feared to
make themselves marked men by publicly opposing him. The most prudent
thing for Messer Simone to do--and I am sure he knew it--was to give up
his game, withdraw his forces, and trust to the chance of some
opportunity of revenge hereafter. This was assuredly the wisest course
open to Simone to pursue. But Simone did not pursue that wisest course.
His temper was worse than his intelligence.

When Dante, from where he stood, saw the coming of Griffo, he saluted
him with his sword, for he rightly believed that he came as a friend to
himself, or at least as a foe to Simone; and Messer Guido, that had a
right to take a foremost place in the affairs of the City, especially
in such a time and place where none of those in authority were present,
went up to the _condottiere_ and stood by his bridle, and spoke him
fair, and asked him very courteously why he came thus among them. And
Griffo answered, speaking also very courteously and quietly, that he had
heard from a sure source that there were dissensions in Florence whereby
some of his friends were in danger whom he would be sorry to have come
to hurt--and as he spoke he saluted Messer Guido very civilly and also
Dante--and that in consequence he had ridden over, he