The duke, in the meantime, found himself pinched by hunger in the palace, and seeing himself reduced to a bad condition sought for an accommodation. The Sienese ambassadors had joined the Florentines with opportune aid. These, together with the bishop and with Count Simone, treated with the people, who, however, obstinately refused every accommodation, unless William of Assisi protector, with his son, and Cerettieri Visdomini were first given over to them. The duke refused; but the French soldiers, who were shut up there, protested they would not perish by hunger or by the sword for three persons they would not even have saved, and in the same evening threw the son of the conservatore out at the gate. He was a youth of fine aspect, of eighteen years of age, and was guilty of no other crime but that of being son of an odious man. This was sufficient for the mob to make a sacrifice of him; he was stabbed by a thousand cuts, and even torn to pieces by the teeth of the mob. The same end was made of the father, who had been spectator of the execution of his son. Being demanded by loud shouts, and driven out from the palace, he was cut to pieces, carried in triumph through the city, and his blood and flesh tasted with a savage eagerness. It is strange to see how the people, united, can commit such atrocious actions, which any individual, taken abstractedly, could not be capable of; it would appear that the passions become multiplied in proportion as the number of the mob increases; and that, thinking to do themselves justice, an emulation in cruelty arises, which makes everyone vie with another in excesses of barbarity. This brutal occupation was the cause of the safety of Visdomini, who, being forgotten in that moment, was enabled to escape in the night. After so many cruelties, the people began to attend to treaties of accommodation. The duke gave full power to enter into them by the means of the bishop of Lecce, to fourteen elect, and to the bishop Acciajuoli. By this treaty he solemnly renounced, on the 3rd of August, before the Sienese ambassadors and Count Simone, the government of Florence and the other cities of the republic; and in token of renunciation laid down his mace before witnesses. He departed, on the 6th of August, accompanied by the count, who ordered him on the confines to confirm his abdication. He at first refused; but, upon being threatened with being taken back to Florence, he was induced to ratify it. He left behind him an atrocious and infamous memory; nor is any other praise due to his government than for the care he gave himself to unite the minds of many citizens who were alienated from one another by an inveterate and hereditary hatred.[e] ATTEMPTED REFORMS