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Book FirstPart XXXVIII
Part XXXVIII
I shall skip over some intervening circumstances, and tell how Pope
Clement, wishing to save the tiaras and the whole collection of the great
jewels of the Apostolic Camera, had me called, and shut himself up together
with me and the Cavalierino in a room alone. ^1 This cavalierino had been a
groom in the stable of Filippo Strozzi; he was French, and a person of the
lowest birth; but being a most faithful servant, the Pope had made him very
rich, and confided in him like himself. So the Pope, the Cavaliere, and I,
being shut up together, they laid before me the tiaras and jewels of the
regalia; and his Holiness ordered me to take all the gems out of their gold
settings. This I accordingly did; afterwards I wrapt them separately up in
bits of paper and we sewed them into the linings of the Pope`s and the
Cavaliere`s clothes. Then they gave me all the gold, which weighed about two
hundred pounds, and bade me melt it down as secretly as I was able. I went up
to the Angel, where I had my lodging, and could lock the door so as to be free
from interruption. There I built a little draught-furnace of bricks, with a
largish pot, shaped like an open dish, at the bottom of it; and throwing the
gold upon the coals, it gradually sank through and dropped into the pan. While
the furnace was working I never left off watching how to annoy our enemies;
and as their trenches were less than a stone`s-throw right below us, I was
able to inflict considerable damage on them with some useless missiles, ^2 of
which there were several piles, forming the old munition of the castle. I
chose a swivel and a falconet, which were both a little damaged in the muzzle,
and filled them with the projectiles I have mentioned. When I fired my guns,
they hurtled down like mad, occasioning all sorts of unexpected mischief in
the trenches. Accordingly I kept these pieces always going at the same time
that the gold was being melted down; and a little before vespers I noticed
some one coming along the margin of the trench on muleback. The mule was
trotting very quickly, and the man was talking to the soldiers in the
trenches. I took the precaution of discharging my artillery just before he
came immediately opposite; and so, making a good calculation, I hit my mark.
One of the fragments struck him in the face; the rest were scattered on the
mule, which fell dead. A tremendous uproar rose up from the trench; I opened
fire with my other piece, doing them great hurt. The man turned out to be the
Prince of Orange, who was carried through the trenches to a certain tavern in
the neighbourhood, whither in a short while all the chief folk of the army
came together.
[Footnote 1: This personage cannot be identified. The Filippo Strozzi
mentioned as having been his master was the great opponent of the Medicean
despotism, who killed himself in prison after the defeat of Montemurlo in
1539. He married in early life a daughter of Piero de` Medici.]
[Footnote 2: Passatojacci.]
When Pope Clement heard what I had done, he sent at once to call for me,
and inquired into the circumstance. I related the whole, and added that the
man must have been of the greatest consequence, because the inn to which they
carried him had been immediately filled by all the chiefs of the army, so far
at least as I could judge. The Pope, with a shrewd instinct, sent for Messer
Antonio Santacroce, the nobleman who, as I have said, was chief and commander
of the gunners. He bade him order all us bombardiers to point our pieces,
which were very numerous, in one mass upon the house, and to discharge them
all together upon the signal of an arquebuse being fired. He judged that if we
killed the generals, the army, which was already almost on the point of
breaking up, would take flight. God perhaps had heard the prayers they kept
continually making, and meant to rid them in this manner of those impious
scoundrels.
We put our cannon in order at the command of Santacroce, and waited for
the signal. But when Cardinal Orsini ^3 became aware of what was going
forward, he began to expostulate with the Pope, protesting that the thing by
no means ought to happen, seeing they were on the point of concluding an
accommodation, and that if the generals were killed, the rabble of the troops
without a leader would storm the castle and complete their utter ruin.
Consequently they could by no means allow the Pope`s plan to be carried out.
The poor Pope, in despair, seeing himself assassinated both inside the castle
and without, said that he left them to arrange it. On this, our orders were
countermanded; but I, who chafed against the leash, ^4 when I knew that they
were coming round to bid me stop from firing, let blaze one of my
demi-cannons, and struck a pillar in the courtyard of the house, around which
I saw a crowd of people clustering. This shot did such damage to the enemy
that it was like to have made them evacuate the house. Cardinal Orsini was
absolutely for having me hanged or put to death; but the Pope took up my cause
with spirit. The high words that passed between them, though I well know what
they were, I will not here relate, because I make no profession of writing
history. It is enough for me to occupy myself with my own affairs.
[Footnote 3: Franciotto Orsini was educated in the household of his kinsman
Lorenzo de` Medici. He followed the profession of arms, and married; but after
losing his wife took orders, and received the hat in 1517.]
[Footnote 4: Io che non potevo stare alle mosse.]
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