nd on
foot, as each best could. And when they came to Modena a gate was
opened to them by the Guelfs, and they were admitted; and straightway
when they were come upon the piazza of Modena, as brave men and used
to arms and to war, they attacked the Ghibellines, which could not
long endure, but were defeated and slain and driven out of the city,
and their houses and their goods spoiled; by reason of which booty the
said Guelf refugees from Florence and from the rest of Tuscany were
much enriched, and furnished themselves with horses and with arms,
whereof they were in great need, and this was in the year of Christ
1263. And whilst they were in Modena, a little while after, in the
same manner as in Modena, fighting began in the city of Reggio in
Lombardy, between the Guelfs and the Ghibellines; and when the Guelfs
of Reggio sent for aid to the Guelf refugees from Florence, which were
in Modena, straightway they went thither, and they chose as their
captain Messer Forese degli Adimari. And when they were come to Reggio
they joined in the battle on the piazza, which endured long time,
forasmuch as the Ghibellines of Reggio were very powerful, and among
them was one called Caca of Reggio, on whose name wit is spilled in
gibes even yet. This man was well-nigh as tall as a giant, and of
marvellous strength, and he had an iron club in his hand, and none
dared to approach him whom he did not fell to the earth, either slain
or maimed, and by him the battle was well-nigh wholly sustained. When
the gentlemen in banishment from Florence perceived this, they chose
among them twelve of the most valiant, and called them the twelve
paladins, which, with daggers in hand, all set upon that valiant man,
which, after very brave defence, and beating down many of his enemies,
was struck down to the earth and slain upon the piazza; and so soon as
the Ghibellines saw their champion on the ground, they took to flight
and were discomfited and driven out of Reggio; and if the Guelf
refugees from Florence and from the other cities of Tuscany were
enriched by the spoil of the Ghibellines of Modena, much more were
they enriched by that of the Ghibellines of Reggio; and they all
provided themselves with horses, so that in a short time, while they
abode in Reggio and in Modena, they numbered more than 400 horsemen,
good men-at-arms well mounted, and they came at great need to the
succour of Charles, count of Anjou and of Provence, when he came into
Apu