commanding him, under pain of excommunication, not to go forward, nor to oppose King Charles, the champion and vicar of Holy Church. But Conradino did not by reason of this abandon his enterprise, nor would he obey the commands of the Pope, forasmuch as he believed that his cause was just, and that the Kingdom and Sicily were his, and of his patrimony, and therefore he fell under sentence of excommunication from the Church, which he despised and cared little for; but being in Pisa, he collected money and people, and all the Ghibellines and whosoever belonged to the imperial party, gathered themselves to him, whence his force grew greatly. And being in Pisa, his host marched against the city of Lucca, which was held for the party of Holy Church, and within it were the marshal of King Charles with his people, and the legate of the Pope and of the Church, with the forces of the Florentines and of the other Guelfs of Tuscany, and with many who had taken the cross, and through proclamations and indulgences and pardons given by the Pope and by his legates, had come against Conradino; and he remained over against Lucca ten days with his host; and the two hosts met together to fight at Ponterotto, two miles distant from Lucca, but they did not fight, but each one shunned the battle, and they remained one on each side of the Guiscianella; so they returned, the one part to Pisa, and the other to Lucca. Sec. 24.--_How the marshal of King Charles was defeated at Ponte a Valle by Conradino's army._ [Sidenote: 1268 A.D.]