Pinuccia didn’t have time to get out of the alley, at the end of which she saw the widening where was the entrance of the palace that she believed to be her goal, when she was surrounded by a handful of malicious men. She turned on herself looking for an escape route, which was blocked by two ugly mugs. On both sides, the imposing walls of large palaces showed their sides to the alley, without offering the hospitality of a door or a window on the ground floor. At the end of the alley, an energetic man would certainly not have let it pass to reach the entrance of the Elders’ Palace, above which waved the Doric flag, the only bulwark of salvation at that time. Pinuccia decided that it would be worth to face the only man at the end of the alley, approaching him with a decisive step and passin
