“Just at the hour when her sad lay begins The little swallow, near unto the morning, Perchance in memory of her former woes. And when the mind of man, a wanderer More from the flesh, and less by thought imprisoned, Almost prophetic in its visions is.”

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The disasters soon to befall Florence, and in which even the neighboring town of Prato would rejoice, to mention no others. These disasters were the fall of the wooden bridge of Carraia, with a crowd upon it, witnessing a Miracle Play on the Arno; the strife of the Bianchi and Neri; and the great fire of 1304. See Villani, VIII 70, 71. Napier, Florentine History , I 394, gives this account:⁠—