Before the fight had ended the Defenders sent a solemn procession to bring back the three of the Nine who had left the Palace; "with a goodly company, preceded by the trumpets, with garlands on their heads and with olive branches in their hands; they put them back in the Palace in their place, embracing them and kissing them with the greatest tenderness and craving pardon." The Captain of the People issued a proclamation that no one should sell nor give any food to the Emperor and his folk. "The Emperor remained alone with the greatest fear that any rascal ever had. The people stared at him; he wept and made excuses, embraced and kissed every person that went to him, and said: 'I have been betrayed by Messer Malatesta and by Messer Giovanni and by the Salimbeni and by the Twelve.'"[14] Half starved and altogether terrified, the unfortunate man promised anything the Sienese wanted, in order to get away from the [Illustration: LA CROCE DEL TRAVAGLIO] dreadful city. He made the Defenders his vicars in perpetuity, granted the Sienese all conceivable privileges, pardoned everybody everything, accepted a handsome sum of money, and went. Many of the Salimbeni and others tried to escape disguised among the knights of his train, but several were detected and handed over to the Captain of the People. It was said that there had been a conspiracy to make over the lordship of Siena to Malatesta with an annual tribute to the Emperor, to give the Salimbeni and the Dodicini two days of complete vengeance over their foes, to allow the soldiers three days' sack of the city. But the matter was hushed up and the prisoners released, to the indignation of the populace. A few months of anarchy followed. The Salimbeni and the Dodicini were at the throats of the Noveschi in the city, while the banished nobles maintained a state of war in the contado. The Defenders and the Council of the Riformatori appointed an _esecutore_ to maintain order and execute justice, and formed a new association known as the Casata Grande del Popolo, with the white lion for arms, to preserve the popular constitution of the State. In July, 1369, by arbitration of the Florentine Republic, peace was at last made, and the six exiled families--Piccolomini, Malavolti, Saracini, Tolomei, Forteguerri, Cerretani--were reconciled with the Republic and restored to their country, with the right of sitting in all the magistracies of the State, saving only those of the fifteen Defenders, the three Gonfalonieri, and the Councils of the Riformatori. The treaty was received with universal satisfaction--but the peace was of brief duration. Although the Salimbeni had previously made terms with the other nobles, they continued to hang the banner of the People out of their windows "come consorti del Popolo."