world, with great lamentation and sorrow to all the city, for each one believed he must have lost his son or his brother there; and this was a sign of future ill, which in a short time should come to our city through the exceeding wickedness of the citizens, as hereafter we shall make mention. Sec. 71.--_How Florence was set on fire, and a great part of the city burnt._ [Sidenote: 1304 A.D.] [Sidenote: Cf. Par. xvi. 121, 122.] When the Cardinal da Prato had departed from Florence after the manner aforesaid, the city was left in evil state and in great confusion; for there was the party which held with the cardinal, whereof were leaders the Cavalcanti and the Gherardini, the Pulci and the White Cerchi of the Garbo, which were merchants of Pope Benedict, with a following of many houses of the people, (which feared the magnates might break up the Popolo if they got the government), from among the leading houses and families of the popolani of Florence, such as the Magalotti, and Mancini, Peruzzi, Antellesi, and Baroncelli, and Acciaiuoli, and Alberti, Strozzi, Ricci, and Albizzi, and many others; and they were well provided with foot-soldiers and with men-at-arms. On the contrary part, to wit, the Blacks, the leaders were M. Rosso della Tosa, with his branch of Blacks, M. Pazzino de' Pazzi, with all his family, the part of the Adimari which were called the Cavicciuli, and M. Geri Spini, with his kin, and M. Betto Brunelleschi; M. Corso Donati stood neutral, forasmuch as he was ill with the gout, and because he was angered with these leaders of the Black party; and almost all the other magnates held aloof, and the popolani also, save the Medici and the Giugni, which held strongly with the Blacks. And the fighting began between the White Cerchi and the Giugni at their houses at the Garbo, and they fought there by day and by night. In the end, the Cerchi defended themselves with the aid of the Cavalcanti and Antellesi, and the force of the Cavalcanti and Gherardini so increased that with their followers they rode through the city as far as the Mercato Vecchio, and from Orto San Michele as far as the piazza of S. Giovanni, without any opposition or hindrance whatever, because their forces increased both in the city and in the country; forasmuch as the greater part of the people followed them, and the Ghibellines sided with them; and they of Volognano and their friends were coming to their aid with more than 1,000 foot-soldiers; and were already at Bisarno; and certainly on that day they would have conquered the city and driven out thence the aforesaid leaders of the Blacks and Guelfs, whom they held as their enemies (forasmuch as it was said that they had caused M. Betto Gherardini to be beheaded, and Masino Cavalcanti and the others, as we before made mention), save that when they were flourishing and victorious in several parts of the city where they were fighting against their enemies, it came to pass, as it pleased