s presented to the commonwealth a very fine and strong lion, the
which was in a den in the piazza of San Giovanni. It came to pass that
by lack of care on the part of the keeper, the said lion escaped from
its den, running through the streets, whence all the city was moved
with fear. It came to a stand at Orto San Michele, and there caught
hold of a boy and held him between its paws. The mother, whose only
child he was, and not born till after his father's death, on hearing
what had chanced, ran up to the lion in desperation, shrieking aloud
and with dishevelled hair, and snatched the child from between its
paws, and the lion did no hurt either to the woman or to the child,
but only gazed steadfastly and kept still. Now the question was what
was the cause of this, whether the nobility of the nature of the lion,
or that fortune preserved the life of the said child, to the end he
might avenge his father, the which he did, and was afterwards called
Orlanduccio of the lion, of Calfette. And note, that at the time of
the said Popolo, and before and afterwards for a long time, the
citizens of Florence lived soberly, and on coarse food, and with
little spending, and in manners and graces were in many respects
coarse and rude; and both they and their wives were clad in coarse
garments, and many wore skins without lining, and caps on their heads,
and all wore leather boots on their feet, and the Florentine ladies
wore boots without ornaments, and the greatest were contented with one
close-fitting gown of scarlet serge or camlet, girt with a leathern
girdle after the ancient fashion, with a hooded cloak lined with
miniver, which hood they wore on their head; and the common women were
clad in coarse green cambric after the same fashion; and 100 lire was
the common dowry for wives, and 200 or 300 lire was, in those times,
held to be excessive; and the most of the maidens were twenty or more
years old before they were wedded. After such habits and plain customs
then lived the Florentines, but they were true and trustworthy to one
another and to their commonwealth, and with their simple life and
poverty they did greater and more virtuous things than are done in our
times with more luxury and with more riches.

[Sidenote: 1259 A.D.]

[Sidenote: 1260 A.D.]

Sec. 70.--_How Paleologus, emperor of the Greeks, took Constantinople
from the French and the Venetians._ Sec. 71.--_Of a very sore battle
which was between the king of Hungary