thinking themselves insulted
by the Capitano and abandoned by Giano della Bella, instead of going
to the Signory went to the palace of the Capitano, of which they made
themselves masters, and plundered it.

This outrage displeased the whole city, and those who wished the ruin of
Giano laid the entire blame upon him; and as in the succeeding Signory
there was an enemy of his, he was accused to the Capitano as the
originator of the riot. While the case was being tried, the people took
arms, and, proceeding to his house, offered to defend him against the
Signory and his enemies. Giano, however, did not wish to put this burst
of popular favor to the proof, or trust his life to the magistrates, for
he feared the malignity of the latter and the instability of the former;
so, in order to remove an occasion for his enemies to injure him, or
his friends to offend the laws, he determined to withdraw, deliver his
countrymen from the fear they had of him, and, leaving the city which
at his own charge and peril he had delivered from the servitude of the
great, become a voluntary exile.

After the departure of Giano della Bella the nobility began to entertain
hopes of recovering their authority; and judging their misfortune to
have arisen from their divisions, they sent two of their body to the
Signory, which they thought was favorable to them, to beg they would be
pleased to moderate the severity of the laws made against them. As soon
as their demand became known, the minds of the people were much excited;
for they were afraid the Signors would submit to them; and so, between
the desire of the nobility and the jealousy of the people, arms were
resorted to. The nobility were drawn together in three places: near the
church of St. John, in the New Market, and in the Piazza of the Mozzi,
under three leaders, Forese Adimari, Vanni de Mozzi, and Geri Spini.
The people assembled in immense numbers, under their ensigns, before the
palace of the Signory, which at that time was situated near St. Procolo;
and, as they suspected the integrity of the Signory, they added six
citizens to their number to take part in the management of affairs.

While both parties were preparing for the fight, some individuals, as
well of the people as of the nobility, accompanied by a few priests of
respectable character, mingled among them for the purpose of effecting
a pacification, reminding the nobility that their loss of power, and the
laws which were made a