After the miserable Guelfs which had been driven from Florence and from all the cities of Tuscany (whereof none held with the Guelf party) were come into the city of Bologna, they abode there long time in great want and poverty, some receiving pay to serve on foot, and some on horse, and some without pay. It came to pass in those times that the inhabitants of the city of Modena, Guelfs and Ghibellines, came to dissension and civic strife among themselves, as it is the custom of the cities of Lombardy to assemble and fight on the piazza of the commonwealth; and many days they were opposed the one to the other without either side being able to win the victory. It came to pass that the Guelfs sent for succour to Bologna, and especially to the Guelf refugees from Florence, which straightway, as needy folk, and making war for their own behoof, went thither on horse and on foot, as each best could. And when they came to Modena a gate was opened to them by the Guelfs, and they were admitted; and straightway when they were come upon the piazza of Modena, as brave men and used to arms and to war, they attacked the Ghibellines, which could not long endure, but were defeated and slain and driven out of the city, and their houses and their goods spoiled; by reason of which booty the said Guelf refugees from Florence and from the rest of Tuscany were much enriched, and furnished themselves with horses and with arms, whereof they were in great need, and this was in the year of Christ 1263. And whilst they were in Modena, a little while after, in the same manner as in Modena, fighting began in the city of Reggio in Lombardy, between the Guelfs and the Ghibellines; and when the Guelfs of Reggio sent for aid to the Guelf refugees from Florence, which were in Modena, straightway they went thither, and they chose as their captain Messer Forese degli Adimari. And when they were come to Reggio they joined in the battle on the piazza, which endured long time, forasmuch as the Ghibellines of Reggio were very powerful, and among them was one called Caca of Reggio, on whose name wit is spilled in gibes even yet. This man was well-nigh as tall as a giant, and of marvellous strength, and he had an iron club in his hand, and none dared to approach him whom he did not fell to the earth, either slain or maimed, and by him the battle was well-nigh wholly sustained. When the gentlemen in banishment from Florence perceived this, they chose among them twelve of the most valiant, and called them the twelve paladins, which, with daggers in hand, all set upon that valiant man, which, after very brave defence, and beating down many of his enemies, was struck down to the earth and slain upon the piazza; and so soon as the Ghibellines saw their champion on the ground, they took to flight and were discomfited and driven out of Reggio; and if the Guelf refugees from Florence and from the other cities of Tuscany were enriched by the spoil of the Ghibellines of Modena, much more were