ABSTRACT
It is the truth that the Lord King of Sicily, as one who is entirely of the Ghibelline party, must help the Houses of Doria and Spinola and the other great Houses which left Genoa and went to Savona, with money and chivalry and galleys and victuals. Thus God and he have sup ported them in the city of Savona against the Guelph party, which remained in the city of Genoa ; so it is certain that it is God and His aid and that of the Lord King of Sicily which has upheld them. And when the Duke, son of King Robert, passed into Sicily, those afore said, of Savona, promised to help the Lord King of Sicily with their galleys and the said Lord King counted much on them. But if he had remembered well how often they had failed the Lord King En Jaime, his brother, when he was King of Sicily, and how often they had failed himself, he would have expected nothing of them. But it is so with lords, that, when God grants them a long life, they often change their counsellors, through death or otherwise, and young counsellors bring any lord into great danger. For although it may be that they are wiser than the former ones had been, they cannot know things as well as those who are old, who have seen and heard. W ith only half the learning, an old man will know how to give better advice than the young in all matters of war, because he will have seen many more deeds of arms and heard more than a young man. And so, from the things of the past, a man can fore see the things of the present and the future. Wherefore I can assure you that, if the good count En G. Galceran were alive, or Don Blasco de Alagon, or En Hugueto de Ampurias, count de Esquilace, or many other Catalans
and Aragonese who have passed from this life, or again if micer Mateo de Termens and micer Vinciguerra de Palozi and others were alive, the Lord King of Sicily would not have lost as much as he did in helping the Genoese, for they would have reminded him of former times. And as he has been deceived now, he and all kings who trust in the Communes will always be deceived. And it is well that I should record for you the treachery which the Genoese committed against the Lord King of Sicily now, in this expedition of the Duke to Sicily.
