a and several more castles of the
commonwealth, and sent their ambassadors again into Apulia with the
said money to King Manfred, saying how his few German followers by
their great vigour and valour had undertaken to assail the whole host
of the Florentines, and had turned a great part thereof to flight; but
if they had been more, they would have had the victory; but by reason
of their small number, they had all been left upon the field, and his
standard had been dragged about and insulted in the camp and in
Florence and round about. And beside this they plied the best reasons
they knew to move Manfred, who, having heard the tidings, was wrath,
and with the money of the Sienese, who paid half the charges for three
months, and at his own cost, sent into Tuscany Count Giordano, his
marshal, with 800 German horsemen, to go with the said ambassadors;
who reached Siena in the end of July, the year of Christ 1260, and by
the Sienese were received with great rejoicing, and they and all the
Ghibellines of Tuscany drew thence great vigour and courage. And when
they were come to Siena, immediately the Sienese sent forth their host
against the castle of Montalcino, which was under the commands of the
commonwealth of Florence, and sent for aid to the Pisans and to all
the Ghibellines of Tuscany, so that, what with the horsemen of Siena
and the Florentine refugees, and the Germans and their allies, there
were found 1,800 horsemen in Siena, whereof the greater part were
Germans.

Sec. 77.--_How the Ghibelline refugees from Florence prepared to deceive
the commonwealth and people of Florence, and cause them to be
betrayed._

[Sidenote: Purg. xi. 109-142.]

[Sidenote: Inf. vi. 79. xvi. 40-42.]

The Florentine refugees, by whose embassy and deed King Manfred had
sent Count Giordano with 800 German horsemen, thought within
themselves that they had done nothing if they could not draw the
Florentines out into the field, inasmuch as the aforesaid Germans were
not paid save for three months, and already more than one month and a
half of this had passed, since their coming, nor had they more money
wherewith to pay them, nor did they look for any from Manfred; and
should the time for which they had been paid pass by without having
done aught, they would return into Apulia, to the great peril of the
state. They reasoned that this could not be contrived without skill
and subtlety of war, which business was committed to M. Farinata degli