bility being overcome, and the war with the archbishop of Milan
concluded, there did not appear any cause of dissension in Florence. But
the evil fortune of the city, and the defective nature of her laws,
gave rise to enmities between the family of the Albizzi and that of
the Ricci, which divided her citizens as completely as those of the
Buondelmonti and the Uberti, or the Donati and the Cerchi had formerly
done. The pontiffs, who at this time resided in France, and the
emperors, who abode in Germany, in order to maintain their influence
in Italy, sent among us multitudes of soldiers of many countries, as
English, Dutch, and Bretons. As these, upon the conclusion of a war,
were thrown out of pay, though still in the country, they, under the
standard of some soldier of fortune, plundered such people as were least
prepared to defend themselves. In the year 1353 one of these companies
came into Tuscany under the command of Monsignor Reale, of Provence, and
his approach terrified all the cities of Italy. The Florentines not
only provided themselves forces, but many citizens, among whom were
the Albizzi and the Ricci, armed themselves in their own defense. These
families were at the time full of hatred against each other, and each
thought to obtain the sovereignty of the republic by overcoming his
enemy. They had not yet proceeded to open violence, but only contended
in the magistracies and councils. The city being all in arms, a quarrel
arose in the Old Market place, and, as it frequently happens in similar
cases, a great number of people were drawn together. The disturbance
spreading, it was told the Ricci that the Albizzi had assailed their
partisans, and to the Albizzi that the Ricci were in quest of them. Upon
this the whole city arose, and it was all the magistrates could do to
restrain these families, and prevent the actual occurrence of a disaster
which, without being the fault of either of them, had been willfully
though falsely reported as having already taken place. This apparently
trifling circumstance served to inflame the minds of the parties, and
make each the more resolved to increase the number of their followers.
And as the citizens, since the ruin of the nobility, were on such an
equality that the magistrates were more respected now than they had
previously been, they designed to proceed toward the suppression of this
disorder with civil authority alone.

We have before related, that after the victory of C