Matteo Franco _to_ Ser Piero Dovizi Da Bibbiena, _Chancellor of Lorenzo de’ Medici, wherever he may be_ _Salve, o alter ego._ Good-bye Ser Piero, good-bye Franco, good-bye Lorenzo, Butti, Franceschi, good-bye, good-bye, &c. We parted at Capitulo near Bagno a Morba. Florence having quitted Pisa,[315] we came gaily singing and joking to the mill on this side of Monte Castelli, where we found twenty-five soldiers with shields and spears whom we had seen from above, when we said to one another, “Who are those fellows down there?” and we all shouted “_Palle, Palle_”; they replied, “_Palle, Palle e Orso, Orso_,” and as we came nearer the shouts of _Palle_ and _Orso_ redoubled. We then saw they were men sent from Monte Castelli to escort us, &c. They wanted us to enter the townlet, but we declined, so they came with us down into the plain where was a crowd of women with faces as wrinkled as chestnut cakes, but all very merry and happy with tables spread out with wine, puff pastry, &c. We drank in haste, and keeping one of the soldiers as a guide discharged the others, and went on our journey singing and chatting gaily. Passing by deserted Monte Guidi, half-way down the hill we met a priest with his frock tucked up and so out of breath he might have come from Assisi, who said he was a friend of Donnino,[316] and implored us to dismount at his church and house, he was so exhausted and ran up and down so incessantly, that if he did not go and be bled I fear that by this time he is no more. God help him. We left, or rather we did not stop, and passed down below Casoli without entering, and about four miles this side of the village Martino Ghezo and Martino Moro caught us up, not having been able to keep up with us as we rode fast. They told us that on the other side of Casoli they met the so-much-longed-for Nannina[317] in a carriage, and that she asked about Lorenzo and Madonna Clarice. Hearing that Madonna Clarice had passed, and that Lorenzo had gone to Pisa, she was, they said, in despair, and showed great sorrow at not having seen Lorenzo, or even having been able to talk to Madonna Clarice. When Madonna heard this she several times lamented the bad luck of their missing each other, &c.