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Book FirstPart XXIX
Part XXIX
The plague went dragging on for many months, but I had as yet managed to
keep it at bay; for though several of my comrades were dead, I survived in
health and freedom. Now it chanced one evening that an intimate comrade of
mine brought home to supper a Bolognese prostitute named Faustina. She was a
very fine woman, but about thirty years of age; and she had with her a little
serving-girl of thirteen or fourteen. Faustina belonging to my friend, I
would not have touched her for all the gold in the world; and though she
declared she was madly in love with me, I remained steadfast in my loyalty.
But after they had gone to bed, I stole away the little serving-girl, who
was quite a fresh maid, and woe to her if her mistress had known of it! The
result was that I enjoyed a very pleasant night, far more to my satisfaction
than if I had passed it with Faustina. I rose upon the hour of breaking fast,
and felt tired, for I ha travelled many miles that night, and was wanting to
take food, when a crushing headache seized me; several boils appeared on my
left arm, together with a carbuncle which showed itself just beyond the palm
of the left hand where it joins the wrist. Everybody in the house was in a
panic; my friend, the cow and the calf, all fled. Left alone there with my
poor little prentice, who refused to abandon me, I felt stifled at the heart,
and made up my mind for certain I was a dead man.
Just then the father of the lad went by, who was physician to the
Cardinal Iacoacci, ^1 and lived as member of that prelate`s household. ^2 The
boy called out: "Come, father, and see Benvenuto; he is in bed with some
trifling indisposition." Without thinking what my complaint might be, the
doctor came up at once, and when he had felt my pulse, he saw and felt what
was very contrary to his own wishes. Turning round to his son, he said: "O
traitor of a child, you`ve ruined me; how can I venture now into the
Cardinal`s presence?" His son made answer: "Why, father, this man my master is
worth far more than all the cardinals in Rome." Then the doctor turned to me
and said: "Since I am here, I will consent to treat you. But of one thing only
I warn you, that if you have enjoyed a woman, you are doomed." To this I
replied: "I did so this very night." He answered: "With whom, and to what
extent?" ^3 I said: "Last night, and with a girl in her earliest maturity."
Upon this, perceiving that he had spoken foolishly, he made haste to add:
"Well, considering the sores are so new, and have not yet begun to stink, and
that the remedies will be taken in time, you need not be too much afraid, for
I have good hopes of curing you." When he had prescribed for me and gone away,
a very dear friend of mine, called Giovanni Rigogli, came in, who fell to
commiserating my great suffering and also my desertion by my comrade, and
said: "Be of good cheer, my Benvenuto, for I will never leave your side until
I see you restored to health." I told him not to come too close, since it was
all over with me. Only I besought him to be so kind as to take a considerable
quantity of crowns, which were lying in a little box near my bed, and when God
had thought fit to remove me from this world, to send them to my poor father,
writing pleasantly to him, in the way I too had done, so far as that appalling
season of the plague permitted. ^4 My beloved friend declared that he had no
intention whatsoever of leaving me, and that come what might, in life or
death, he knew very well what was his duty toward a friend. And so we went on
by the help of God: and the admirable remedies which I had used began to work
a great improvement, and I soon came well out of that dreadful sickness.
[Footnote 1: Probably Domenico Iacobacci, who obtained the hat in 1517.]
[Footnote 2: A sua provisione stava, i.e., he was in the Cardinal`s regular
pay.]
[Footnote 3: Quanto. Perhaps we ought to read quando - when?]
[Footnote 4: Come ancora io avevo fatto secondo l`usanza che promettava quell`
arrabbiata stagione. I am not sure that I have given the right sense in the
text above. Leclanche interprets the words thus: "that I too had fared
according to the wont of that appalling season," i.e., had died of the plague.
But I think the version in my sense is more true both to Italian and to
Cellini`s special style.]
The sore was still open, with a plug of lint inside it and a plaster above,
when I went out riding on a little wild pony. He was covered with hair four
fingers long, and was exactly as big as a well-grown bear; indeed he looked
just like a bear. I rode out on him to visit the painter Rosso, who was then
living in the country, toward Civita Vecchia, at a place of Count Anguillara`s
called Cervetera. I found my friend, and he was very glad to see me; whereupon
I said: "I am come to do to you that which you did to me so many months ago."
He burst out laughing, embraced and kissed me, and begged me for the Count`s
sake to keep quiet. I stayed in that place about a month, with much content
and gladness, enjoying good wines and excellent food, and treated with the
greatest kindness by the Count; every day I used to ride out alone along the
seashore, where I dismounted, and filled my pockets with all sorts of pebbles,
snail shells, and sea shells of great rarity and beauty.
On the last day (for after this I went there no more) I was attacked by a
band of men, who had disguised themselves, and disembarked from a Moorish
privateer. When they thought that they had run me into a certain passage,
where it seemed impossible that I should escape from their hands, I suddenly
mounted my pony, resolved to be roasted or boiled alive at that pass perilous,
seeing I had little hope to evade one or the other of these fates; ^5 but, as
God willed, my pony, who was the same I have described above, took an
incredibly wide jump, and brought me off in safety, for which I heartily
thanked God. I told the story to the Count; he ran to arms; but we saw the
galleys setting out to sea. The next day following I went back sound and with
good cheer to Rome.
[Footnote 5: i.e., to escape either being drowned or shot.]
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