is time was under the government of
Uguccione della Faggiuola of Arezzo, whom the Pisans had chosen as their
captain, but who had made himself their lord. He had befriended certain
Ghibellines banished from Lucca, and therefore Castruccio entered into
secret treaty with him in order that these exiles might be restored. So
he furnished in Lucca the Tower of Honour, which was in his charge, in
case he might have to defend it. He met Uguccione on the night
appointed, between Lucca and the hills towards Pisa, and, agreeing with
him, Uguccione marched on the city to St. Peter's Gate and set fire to
it, while he attacked another on the other side of the town. Meanwhile,
his friends within the city ran about in the night calling _To your
arms_, and filled the streets with confusion; so that Uguccione easily
entered, and, having seized the city, caused all the Opizi to be
murdered as well as all the Guelphs he could find. Nor did he stop
there, for he exiled one hundred of the best families, who immediately
fled to Florence and Pistoja. The Florentines, seeing the Guelph power
tottering, put an army in the field, and met the Pisans and Lucchesi at
Montecatini. There followed the memorable battle called after that
place, in which the Florentines lost some ten thousand men.[144] This
was in 1315. Now whether, as Villani says, Uguccione won that battle,
or, as Machiavelli asserts, was sick, so that the honour fell to
Castruccio, there was already of necessity much jealousy between the two
captains; for certainly Castruccio had not called on Uguccione to make
him Lord of Lucca, nor had Uguccione obeyed that call for mere love of
Castruccio. He therefore, being returned to Pisa, sent his son Nerli to
seize Lucca and kill Castruccio, but the lad bungled it: when Uguccione
himself set out to repair this, he found the city ready, demanding the
release of Castruccio, whom Nerli had imprisoned. Seeing, then, the mood
of the city, and that he had but four hundred horse with him, he was
compelled to agree to this. And at once Castruccio, who was in no wise
daunted, assembled his friends and flung Uguccione out of Lucca.
Meantime the Pisans had themselves revolted, so that this tyrant was
compelled to retire into Lombardy.

It was now that Castruccio saw his opportunity. He got himself chosen
Captain-General of all the Lucchese forces for a twelvemonth, and began
to reduce the surrounding places near and far which had come under the
rule of