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S I have shown, each man within our gates brooded on death; but there were larger doings afoot than such small killings as glut one man's hate or satisfy one man's desire of profit. Higher hates than these there were, and greater discomforts than an older brother sitting in the place that a younger coveted; greater riches to be snatched than that of a relative too slow in dying.

The Degli Oddi and the house of Da Sala had long striven for power one with another, and at varying times had split the city in two, and the old rivalry had been given an edge of hate through the marriage of Beatrice degli Oddi to Ugo da Sala, and now they carried on a novel warfare. The rival houses dreamed wholesale assassination for their own ends.

There began through the town a buying up of the black vote of death. This I knew because the Conti supported the house of Da Sala, and day by day they met to discuss and to count their gains and whisper among themselves of the activity of their enemy,