jumble of spears aimed at the enemy. During the fight, which lasted eight to nine hours from morning to three in the afternoon and which was characterized by repeated charges punctuated by long pauses to make the armies repackage and refurbish, the first two lines finally gave way, but the third resisted shocks. According to other sources, the rows that capitulated were instead four, with a fifth and last that rejected the attacks. Meanwhile, the municipal troops who were retreating towards Milan met the bulk of the Lombard League army moving towards Legnano; the municipal army, now reunified, after having reorganized moved towards Legnano and arrived at the point where the Carroccio was located attacked the imperial troops on the sides and from behind, who were already tired from the vain assaults on the Carroccio. With the arrival of the cavalry, also the infantrymen around the communal cart passed to the counteroffensive. Sensing that the heart of the battle was now around the Carroccio, Frederick Barbarossa, with his usual audacity, threw himself into the middle of the fray trying to encourage his troops, but without appreciable results. In the heat of battle his horse was mortally wounded and the emperor disappeared to the sight of the fighters; in addition, the imperial army standard-bearer was killed, pierced by a spear. The imperials, attacked on two sides, then began to become discouraged and faced a total defeat. The strategy of the imperials to resist until the evening and then, at the end of the battle, fall back to catch up and reorganize did not go well. They tried to flee towards Ticino passing from Dairago and Turbigo, but were pursued by the troops of the Lombard League for eight miles. The waters of the river were the theater of the last phases of the battle, which ended with the capture and killing of many soldiers of the imperial army and with the sacking of the military camp of Frederick Barbarossa in Legnano. The emperor himself found it difficult to escape capture and reach the faithful Pavia. After the battle, the Milanese wrote to the Bolognese, their allies in the League, a letter stating, among other things, that they had in custody, right in Milan, a conspicuous loot in gold and silver, the banner, the shield and the imperial spear, and a large number of prisoners, including Count Berthold I of Zähringen (one