Charles VIII made no reply to the envoys, but merely announced that he was going to march on Florence.
Such a reply, one may easily understand, terrified the republic.
Florence, had no time to prepare a defence, and no strength in her present state to make one.

But all the powerful houses assembled and armed their own servants and retainers, and awaited the issue, intending not to begin hostilities, but to defend themselves should the French make an attack.

It was agreed that if any necessity should arise for taking up arms, the bells of the various churches in the town should ring a peal and so serve as a general signal.

Such a resolution was perhaps of more significant moment in Florence than it could have been in any other town.

For the palaces that still remain from that period are virtually fortresses and the eternal fights between Guelphs and Ghibellines had familiarised the Tuscan people with street warfare.
The king appeared, an the 17th of November, in the evening, at the gate of San Friano.