s of the hypocrite's
friends to be sacked? Already one-half of the armed multitude, too much
in the rear to share greatly in the siege of the convent, had been
employed in the more profitable work of attacking rich houses, not with
planless desire for plunder, but with that discriminating selection of
such as belonged to chief Piagnoni, which showed that the riot was under
guidance, and that the rabble with clubs and staves was well officered
by sword-girt Compagnacci. Was there not--next criminal after the
Frate--the ambitious Francesco Valori, suspected of wanting with the
Frate's help to make himself a Doge or Gonfaloniere for life? And the
grey-haired man who, eight months ago, had lifted his arm and his voice
in such ferocious demand for justice on five of his fellow-citizens,
only escaped from San Marco to experience what _others_ called justice--
to see his house surrounded by an angry, greedy multitude, to see his
wife shot dead with an arrow, and to be himself murdered, as he was on
his way to answer a summons to the Palazzo, by the swords of men named
Ridolfi and Tornabuoni.

In this way that Masque of the Furies, called Riot, was played on in
Florence through the hours of night and early morning.

But the chief director was not visible: he had his reasons for issuing
his orders from a private retreat, being of rather too high a name to
let his red feather be seen waving amongst all the work that was to be
done before the dawn. The retreat was the same house and the same room
in a quiet street between Santa Croce and San Marco, where we have seen
Tito paying a secret visit to Dolfo Spini. Here the Captain of the
Compagnacci sat through this memorable night, receiving visitors who
came and went, and went and came, some of them in the guise of armed
Compagnacci, others dressed obscurely and without visible arms. There
was abundant wine on the table, with drinking-cups for chance comers and
though Spini was on his guard against excessive drinking, he took enough
from time to time to heighten the excitement produced by the news that
was being brought to him continually.

Among the obscurely-dressed visitors Ser Ceccone was one of the most
frequent, and as the hours advanced towards the morning twilight he had
remained as Spini's constant companion, together with Francesco Cei, who
was then in rather careless hiding in Florence, expecting to have his
banishment revoked when the Frate's fall had been accompl