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Shortly after this the Florentines were relieved in some degree

of the pressure of Castruccio's army, owing to his being

compelled to leave his positions before Florence and march on

Pisa, in order to suppress a conspiracy that had been raised

against him by Benedetto Lanfranchi, one of the first men in

Pisa, who could not endure that his fatherland should be under

the dominion of the Lucchese. He had formed this conspiracy,

intending to seize the citadel, kill the partisans of Castruccio,

and drive out the garrison. As, however, in a conspiracy paucity

of numbers is essential to secrecy, so for its execution a few

are not sufficient, and in seeking more adherents to his

conspiracy Lanfranchi encountered a person who revealed the

design to Castruccio. This betrayal cannot be passed by without

severe reproach to Bonifacio Cerchi and Giovanni Guidi, two

Florentine exiles who were suffering their banishment in Pisa.