At the Hour of Dawn

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For centuries, Italy was the battleground of the rival heads of Christendom. They had had numerous troubles, in which first one and then the other party succeeded, but on the night on which our great drama opens, the leading citizens of Nocera, a small town in central Italy, were gathered together in all their state on the Saturday before Palm Sunday. 1396 A.D. Their business was of a most serious nature, as the notorious Biordo de Michelotti, leader of a powerful band of mercenaries, had sent them a threatening demand, and they were about to receive his envoys. Two emissaries entered, clothed from head to foot in plate mail, and presented their demands. These were to the effect that the citizens were to surrender the keys of the city to Biordo and were to receive him as their lord. Nocera had been practically independent up till now, merely owing a nominal allegiance to the Pope, who had claimed to succeed to the Duchy of Tuscany. Naturally, they were unwilling to submit to a merciless tyrant, but they knew that in cruelty Biordo was a man of his word, and he had threatened to sack the town if they did not comply. Those who had read of the Spanish fury at Antwerp, or the sack of Magdeburg, will realize what this meant to the council who knew that they had no means of resisting the brigand. Lorenzo Ferrari, a young hot blood, vowed that he would never see his country the slave of a swashbuckler, and insulted the envoys, but the older men knew that as a fighting force the untrained citizens wore useless, and the walls were in a broken condition. Humbly they had to agree to Biordo's terms and come to meet him and grace his triumphant entry, as they had no time to hire other defenders. This humiliation was too much for Lorenzo to endure, and rather than humble himself to the tyrant, he decided to leave the town, and so that evening be went round to the house of his sweetheart, Gemma. There he and she sadly plighted their troth and received her old grandfather's blessing, and then Lorenzo was lowered over the wall. Next day the gates of the city were flung open and Biordo entered in triumph. The frightened citizens uttered a few half-hearted exclamations as he rode past sheathed in armor. But the moment he had gone his followers poured in and seized the best looking of the women and girls and carried them off beneath their parents' eyes. They were already beginning to feel the misery of being conquered. Biordo, who having gained power, made all the citizens pay homage to him. To his amazement, Lorenzo Ferrari was not amongst those gathered. He demanded his presence. Not finding him, he ordered Lorenzo's sweetheart, Gemma, to be executed the following dawn, unless Lorenzo was there to take her place. Lorenzo, who had left the town, was only by chance advised of this some time later. He hastily gathered together some of the powerful men of his acquaintance and rapidly descended upon the soldiers of Biordo, who taken by surprise while busily engaged at the ceremony of the execution, were completely overpowered, and Gemma saved only in the nick of time. Thus the town freed once again, lived to praise the name of Lorenzo Ferrari.