“At the first Vespers of the Festa, the Anziani went to the Duomo in state:  and before them walked the maidens dressed in new costumes; and after came the trumpeters, and the Captain with his company, and all the other lesser magistrates.  When they were come to the Cathedral, the Archbishop, vested a Pontificale, began solemn Vespers.  This ended, a youth mounted into the pulpit and chanted a prayer in praise of the Assumption of the Most Glorious Virgin.  Then Matins was sung; and that finished, the procession made its way round about the church, and was joined by all the Companies and the Regulars, carrying each man a candle of wax of half a pound weight, alight in his hands.  The Clergy followed with the Canons and the Archbishop with lighted candles of greater weight; and last came the Anziani, the Podesta, the Captain and other Magistrates, the Representatives of the Arti, and all the People with lights of wax in their hands.  And the procession being over, all went to see the illuminations, the bonfires, and the festa, through the city.

“On the morning of the Festa, the ceri were placed on the trabacche, that were more than sixty in number, carried, by boys dressed in liveries, with much pomp.  Immediately after followed the Anziani, the Podesta, and the Captain of the People with all the other Magistrates and Officials and the people, with the Company of Horse richly dressed and with the Companies of Foot; and a little after came all the arti, carrying each one his great cero all painted, and accompanied by all the wind instruments.  It was a thing sweet to hear and beautiful to see.  The offering made, they went out to bring the silver girdle[35] borne with great pomp on a carretta; and there assisted all the clergy in procession with exquisite music both of voices and of instruments.  The usual ceremonies being over, they encircled the Cathedral, and hung the girdle to the irons that were set round about.  Yes, it was this girdle of a great value and very beautiful that was spoken of through the whole world, so that from many a city of Italy people came in haste to see it; but to-day there is nothing of it left save a small particle[36].”

Misfortune certainly had not broken the spirit of Pisa.  And so it is not surprising that, though she dared scarcely fly her flag on the seas, on land she thought to hold her own.  No doubt this hope was strengthened by the advent in 1312 of Henry VII of Luxembourg.  With him on her side she dreamed of the domination of Tuscany.  But it was not to be.  She found money and arms in his cause and her own.  She opened a new war with the Guelph League; she suspended her own Government and made him lord of Pisa.  He remained with her two months, and then in 1313 he died at Buonconvento.  They buried him sadly in the Duomo.  The two million florins she had expended were lost for ever.  Frederick of Sicily, Henry’s ally, though he came to Pisa, refused the proferred lordship, as did Henry of Savoy; and at last Pisa placed herself under the Imperial Vicar of Genoa, for that city also had been delivered by her nobles into the hands of Henry VII.