[123] _Giornale dell' Assedio della Città di Montalcino_ printed in the _Archivio Storico Italiano_, Appendix, vol. viii. [124] Malavolti, iii. 10, p. 160_b_. [125] _Ibid._ p. 161; Sozzini, pp. 157, 158. [126] In this and subsequent quotations from Montluc I have availed myself of Cotton's translation of the Commentaries. [127] Sozzini, _Diario_, p. 307. [128] _Op. cit._ p. 317. [129] _Trattenimenti_, i. pp. 8-10. He adds hideous details of their mutilation at the hands of the Spaniards, which have too frequently been quoted; Sozzini (who tells us that on one occasion the Spaniards succoured the fugitives, p. 376) mentions once that some contadini had their noses and ears cut off, but neither he nor Montluc gives any other hint of the peculiar hideousness and atrocity of Bargagli's version. [130] See Mr Montgomery Carmichael's excellent and picturesque account of the _Spanish Praesidia_, in _In Tuscany_, pp. 283-314. [131] _Nuovi Documenti_, p. 76. [132] _Nuovi Documenti_, p. 75. These officers were first appointed in 1413. [133] _Nuovi Documenti_, p. 201. She says that she has had the house designed by _uno valentissimo maestro_; but does not name him. See also P. Rossi,_L'Arte Senese nel Quattrocento_, pp. 27-29. [134] Bargagli quoted by A. Marenduzzo, _Veglie e Trattenimenti Senesi_, p. 14. [135] The Captain of War--afterwards the Senator--will not be confused with the Captain of the People. The one was an alien noble, the other a Sienese burgher. [136] _Diari Senesi_, 775, 776. [137] _Purg._ v. 133-136. [138] Vasari. [139] V. Lusini, _Il San Giovanni di Siena_, p. 14. [140] "That vain folk which hopes in Talamone, and will lose more hope there than in finding the Diana," _Purg._ xiii. 151-153. The Diana was a subterranean stream supposed to exist under Siena for which, in 1295, the General Council of the Campana decreed that the search should be undertaken. [141] _Documenti_, ii. p. 337; _cf._ Allegretto, _Diari_, 773. Notice the title _Spectabilità_; in a less democratic city than Siena, they would have been _Magnificence_. Incidentally, we may observe (a point frequently missed by English writers, especially of fiction dealing with the Italian Renaissance) that _Magnificence_ was a much less pretentious title at the end of the Quattrocento than it sounds to us now, being little more than the equivalent of "Your Worship" or "Your Honour" (though also applied to ambassadors); while _Excellence_ was, until the middle of the sixteenth century, reserved for quasi-independent potentates, such as the Duke of Ferrara or the Marquis of Mantua, ruling fiefs of the Church or Empire. [142] See pp. 88, 89. In reading these documents, it should be borne in mind that the Sienese and Florentine year (but not the Roman) began on March 25th. The same rule applies to the dates on the Tavolette of the Biccherna and Gabella.