Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1899-04-16

We're taken prisoners. "To see Pisa one
must go TO Genoa" became a common
proverb. As usual in all Italian mis-
fortunes, treachery. baseness and fac
ton had their part i'll this Stupendous
disaster Pisa was strongly Ghibelline
Ugolino, one of the commanders at Me-
lOra, was Il Guelph. When the battle
vas in the height of It's fury Ugolino
drew off his galleyS and FASTENED home
to Pisa to provoke Il rising against the
Ghibellines ana get himself appointed
governor He has had his reward.
Dante. in q passage which, as Lander
says, includes thirty lines unequaled
by any other thirty in the whole do
minions of poetry" has enshrined his
crime in Il well-deserved Immortality
of retribution.
Pisa fingered on for almost q century
and IL quarter longer. Florence. want
ing an access to the sea, desired to en-
roll Pisa in her list of subject towns.
She. indeed, would have made terms
with the Pisans. terms for those days
marvclously humane and considerable
But the Pisans were of n spirit indom-
liable. For IL year they withstood the
FlorcntincS i'll SeGe-a siege that ruin
ed their commerce, destroyed their
manufactures ana brought them to the
very verge of starvation. Again trcach-
cry and bascnesS played their part. The
gates of Pisa were opened by one Of the
PisanS thcmsclves-for n bride of sc, 900
lorins and n countShip! The Floren-
tines brought bread and meat and wine.
and would have treated their captives
kindly. But TO the PisanS liberty was
more than friendship-more. indeed,
than life. All who could left the city OF
their birth never to return again. This
was in 1f06
Under tho rule OF Florence Pisa once
again rose in vitality and power. Espc-
ciutIN Gh ~ hoan,tln f1InntIG for no.
university seat of learning that Lo-
reno The Magnificent of Florence en-
dowed SO richly that even the Florcn-
tines went there to be educated. But
when she attempted 10 regain her free
dom the old story was repeated. al
most in every detaii-sege. resistance.
ruin. famine. capitulation. attempts at
Cancellation on Florcnce'S part naughty
dsdain on the part of Pisa. And. as be-
fore. those of her sons who We're not
slain in battle went into voluntary exile.
But this time the end had really come.
After the capitulation OF 1909 Pisa never
rose again.
The spirit of concIiat ion shown by
Florence To her high-spirited but un-
fortunate ncighbor disposes one To
overlook in her history much that 9TH
orwise one should condcmn-it was SO
utterly unlike the spirit that generally
ruled i'm Italy. so utterly unlike the
SH4lll With Mi!Cil 4 Ipl tiitC Hti"'il " -
treated at the hands of her enemies.
In 1856. when the legatc Philip. who
was also archbishop of Ravenna, enter
ed Padua ostensibly rs it's delivercr, he
allowed his soldiers 4 seven days car
niVal OF cruelty and plumber In the city
they were supposed TO be protecting.
When in lii7 SforZa. the lord of Milan,
took PiaccnZa, then the second city in
Lombardy. he pillaged it with such in
human barbarity that it never after
ward rose again. When in 1912 Ramon,
viccroy of the Siciles. was making war
upon Florence, he besieged Prato then
garrisoned by the Florentines, took ii
and sacked it for twenty-one days.
Thousands were put 10 the sword, and
the streets and churches We're full OF
corpses. not of soldiers, but of civil
ians
But Florence had many claims to the
| consideration of future ages other than
! those occasional manifestations OF
l.chivalrous humanity that we have
mentioned. The Florentines exhibited