the cold, there began in the camp at
San Casciano to be great sickness and mortality among the people,
which greatly infected the country, and reached as far as to Florence;
for the which cause the Emperor departed with his host from San
Casciano and came to Poggibonizzi, and took the strongholds of
Barberino and of San Donato in Poggio, and many other fortresses; at
Poggibonizzi he restored the fortress upon the hill, as of old it was
wont to be, and gave it the name of the Imperial Fortress. There he
abode until the 6th day of March, and during that sojourn he was in
great need of provision, and suffered much want, he and all his host,
forasmuch as the Sienese on the one side, and the Florentines on the
other, between them had closed the roads, and 300 soldiers of King
Robert were in Colle di Valdelsa, and harassed them continually; and
200 of the Emperor's horsemen, as they were returning from Casole,
were defeated by the king's horsemen which were in Colle, on the 14th
day of February, 1312. And on the other side, the marshal with the
soldiers of Florence, harassed him in Sangimignagno, so that the state
of the Emperor was much diminished, and there scarce remained to him
1,000 horse, forasmuch as M. Robert of Flanders had departed with his
followers, and the Florentines took him in flank at Castelfiorentino,
and a great part of his men were slain or taken, and he fled with a
few, albeit he had held the field well, and had given them which
attacked him much to do, which were four to his one, and were much
shamed thereby.

Sec. 49.--_How the Emperor departed from Poggibonizzi and returned to
Pisa, and issued many bans against the Florentines._

[Sidenote: 1313 A.D.]

Thus the Emperor perceived himself to be brought low in men and in
victuals, and also in money, so that nought was left to him to spend,
save only that ambassadors from King Frederick of Sicily, which landed
at Pisa, and came to him to Poggibonizzi to make a league with him
against King Robert, gave him 20,000 golden pistoles. When he had paid
his debts with these, he departed from Poggibonizzi, and without
halting came to Pisa, on the 9th day of March, 1312, in very evil
plight, both he and his followers; but the Emperor Henry had this
supreme virtue in him, that never in adversity was he as one cast
down, nor in prosperity was he vainglorious. When the Emperor had
returned to Pisa he proclaimed a great and weighty sentence against
the Florentine