"The next morning, while the council was still considering the proposition, a tremendous mob of the trades entered the square carrying their ensigns and so intimidated the council and signory that the members fled with the exception of Alemanno and Niccolo. They were finally driven away by threats that if they did not leave their houses would be burned and their families murdered. "Then we entered the palace, led by Michael di Lando, who bore the standard of the gonfalonier of justice. The most of our crowd were in rags. "He took possession of the dias of the presiding officer of the Signory and, turning to his followers, said; 'You are now in possession of the palace and the council hall, in control of the city and in a position to constitute yourselves the governing authority in place of those who have deserted their posts; what is your pleasure?' "'We wish you for our gonfalonier and that you govern the city as the representative of the trade unions and the people.' "'I accept your command and shall proceed to restore peace and order in the city.' "Though meanly clad, he was possessed of much good sense and was not without dignity and courage. With capacity and self-possession, he proceeded at once to exercise the authority he had assumed. "Lorenzo and I, who all the time had acted as his lieutenants and advisers, to hold the mob in check and at the same time settle an old score dating back to my imprisonment in the monastery, suggested that Ser Nuto, then sheriff, be arrested and delivered to the mob. He had made himself very officious in oppressing the trades and the plebeians. "While those deputized to find him were searching the city, others built a gallows in the palace square for his execution; we having determined that his execution should be the first to strike terror into those who had opposed our wishes. "He was soon found and hung by the mob from the gallows by one foot. In less than five minutes he was torn to pieces, nothing remaining but the foot by which he had been suspended. "The first order issued by Michael di Lando was that any one who burned or looted a house should be punished as Ser Nuto had been. "He removed the members of the signory and the colleagues and deposed the syndics of the trades. The eight war commissioners who had assumed to set up a new signory were ordered to resign, which they did. "He then assembled the newly-elected syndics of the trades and in conjunction with them created a new signory, composed of four members from the plebeians, two from the major and two from the minor trades. One of the four members of the plebeians was the ex-friar, appointed under his assumed name of Lorenzo di Puccio. No one ever suspicioned his former connection with the monastery of Agnoli.