was known to Charles, who years before had ruled in Lucca; therefore the Raspanti, of when Montescudaio was one, took heart, and at the moment when Charles was in the Duomo receiving the homage of the city, they roused the people assembled in the Piazza, shouting for the Emperor and Liberty; but Charles heeded them not.  Nevertheless Gambacorti, to save himself, thought fit to give Charles the lordship of the city; but the people, angered at this, demanded their liberty, so that the magistrates, fearing for peace, reconciled the two factions, who then together demanded of Charles his new lordship.  And he gave it them with as good a grace as he could, for his men were few.  Then again he heard from Lucca.  There, too, they demanded liberty, and especially from the dominion of Pisa, and, it is said, the Lucchesi in France gave him 20,000 florins for this.  But Pisa heard of it.  When Charles sent his troops to occupy Lucca, the Raspanti saw their opportunity and rose.  They put themselves at the head of the people, who slew one hundred and fifty of Charles’s Germans, and held Charles himself a prisoner in the Duomo, where he lodged since the Palazzo Comunale had been fired.  Montescudaio, however, secretly joined Charles with his men; he burnt the houses of the Gambacorti and dispersed the mob.  Apparently Lucca was free.  But Charles had reckoned without the Pisan garrison in the subject city.  They fired their beacons, and Pisa saw the blaze.  It was enough, their dominion was in danger; there were no longer any factions; Raspanti and Bergolini alike stood together for Pisa.  They streamed out of the great Porta a Lucca to the relief of their own people, and though six thousand armed peasants opposed them, they won to Lucca and took it, the Pisani still holding the gates.  Then they fired the city, and when the flames closed in round S. Michele the Lucchesi surrendered.  Thus they served their enemies.  But Charles had his revenge.  He seized the Gambacorti, and appointing a judge, having given instructions to find them guilty, tried them and beheaded seven of them in Piazza degli Anziani, in spite of the rage of Pisa.  Then, with a large amount of treasure, of which he had spoiled the Pisans, he fled back with his barbarians to his Germany.  And as soon as he was gone the city took Montescudaio and sent him into exile[39], with the remaining Gambacorti also.  So Charles left Pisa more Ghibelline than he found her.

It was at this time that Pisa really began to see perhaps her true danger from Florence.  Certainly she did everything to prick her into war.  But Florence was already victorious.  Her answer was more disastrous than any battle; she took her trade from the port of Pisa to the Sienese port Talamone.  Then Florence purchased Volterra, over the head of Pisa as it were; and at last, careless whether it pleased the Pisans or no, she permitted the Gambacorti to make raid upon Pisan territory, and allowed Giovanni di Sano, who had lately been in her service, to seize a fortress in the territory of Lucca.  The peace was broken.  On the brink of ruin, ravaged by plague, Pisa turned to confront her hard, merciless foe.  For months Florence ravaged her territory, while she, too weak to strike a blow in her own honour, could but hold her gates.  Then the plague left her, and she rose.