r away as he translated for Anjou. These Romans
did not know Count Charles.

As Simon was conveying Leone Pedulla's speech, a line of big, bearded
foot soldiers carrying spears taller than a man, wearing leather
cuirasses and wide-brimmed helmets of polished steel, marched forward,
boots crunching on the stubble of the harvested field. At von
Regensburg's command, the pikemen formed a ring around the Roman
delegation. The Romans' eyes darted anxiously from side to side.

Charles said, "Simon, tell this impertinent fellow who calls himself
secretary of the Senate just this: I order him to clear away that rabble
blocking the city gates."

Simon repeated the count's command in Italian. His heart began to beat
more rapidly as he sensed an evil moment coming closer and closer.

"The people standing before the walls are citizens of Rome, Your
Signory, acting legally to protect the city from what seems to us a
foreign invader," Pedulla answered. "I cannot tell them to go away."

Simon wished he could soften this when he translated it. Charles's mouth
drew down in a harsh, inverted V.

"Very well." He turned to von Regensburg and pointed. "I would prefer to
hang them, but it would take too long. Use your spears on them."

_Dear, merciful God, do not let this happen!_ Simon prayed.

"No!" Pedulla cried, his voice shrill with horror as the German knight
shouted a command and the Burgundians leveled their spears. It was the
gray-haired Roman's last word. His hand had not quite reached the hilt
of his sword when a bearlike foot soldier lunged at him, driving a spear
through his embroidered tunic into his chest. The pikeman thrust the
steel point in low enough to miss the breastbone but high enough to
pierce the heart. Pedulla did not even have time enough to finish his
scream.

"Clemenza, per favore!" cried another Roman who a moment ago had been
shouting defiance. A spear point caught him in the throat.

Simon wished he could turn his eyes away, but he did not want Charles
and his marshals to think him squeamish. His heart thundered and his
stomach churned, and he feared that his body would betray him. The other
pikemen moved in quickly, taking long steps as if performing spear
drill, holding their pikes near the points for close work. A moment
later they stepped back from a heap of sprawled, dead bodies.

_God! How little time it takes to kill a man!_

Now Simon did look away. The blood, the staring, dead faces, the