e service
and properly armed at the gate of the city which gave upon the highroad
that led in the fulness of time to Arezzo. It was a curious fact, though
of course it was not realized until later, that no one of these
summonses was delivered to any man other than a man known to be a member
of the Red party, and, therefore, by the same token, one that was an
opponent of Messer Simone dei Bardi and his friends of the Yellow
League. The call to each man told him that at the tryst he would find a
horse ready to carry him to his destination.

Each man that received that summons had but a little while before been
feasting blithely at the house of Messer Folco. Each man hastened to
obey his summons without a sinister thought, without a fear. Each man
hastily armed himself, hurriedly flung his cloak about him, and sped
swiftly from his abode or lodging across the night-quiet streets to the
appointed meeting-place. Each man, on arrival at the indicated gate,
found the warders awake and ready for him, ready on his production of
his summons to pass him through the great unbolted doors into the
liberty of the open country. The later arrivals found those that had
answered earlier to the call waiting for them in the gray vagueness
between night and dawn, each man standing by a horse's head, while a
number of other horses in the care of a company of varlets waited,
whinnying and shivering in the shadow of the walls, to be chosen from by
the new-comers. Every man that crossed the threshold of the gateway that
night found Maleotti waiting for him on the other hand with a smile of
welcome on his crafty face, and whispered instructions on his evil lips.

Those instructions were simple enough. The little company of gallant
gentlemen, citizens, for the most part, in the flower of their youth,
and certainly the very flower of the Red party, was to fall under the
temporary command of Messer Guido Cavalcanti. Messer Guido was to
conduct the party, which numbered in all some two hundred souls, to a
designated place, a thickly wooded spot some half-way between Arezzo and
Florence. Here the adventurers were to find waiting for them a company
of Free Companions, some six hundred lances, under the command of the
very illustrious _condottiere_, Messer Griffo of the Claw, to whom, at
the point of conjunction, Messer Guido was instantly to surrender his
temporary leadership of the dedicated fellowship. After that it was for
Messer Griffo to decide t