|
Book FirstPart LII
Part LII
The Pope had sent me all those precious stones, except the diamond, which
was pawned to certain Genoese bankers for some pressing need he had of money.
The rest were in my custody, together with a model of the diamond. I had five
excellent journeymen, and in addition to the great piece, I was engaged on
several jobs; so that my shop contained property of much value in jewels,
gems, and gold and silver. I kept a shaggy dog, very big and handsome, which
Duke Alessandro gave me; the beast was capital as a retriever, since he
brought me every sort of birds and game I shot, but he also served most
admirably for a watchdog. It happened, as was natural at the age of
twenty-nine, that I had taken into my service a girl of great beauty and
grace, whom I used as a model in my art, and who was also complaisant of her
personal favours to me. Such being the case, I occupied an apartment far away
from my workmen`s rooms, as well as from the shop; and this communicated by a
little dark passage with the maid`s bedroom. I used frequently to pass the
night with her; and though I sleep as lightly as ever yet did man upon this
earth, yet, after indulgence in sexual pleasure, my slumber is sometimes very
deep and heavy.
So it chanced one night: for I must say that a thief, under the pretext
of being a goldsmith, had spied on me, and cast his eyes upon the precious
stones, and made a plan to steal them. Well, then, this fellow broke into the
shop, where he found a quantity of little things in gold and silver. He was
engaged in bursting open certain boxes to get at the jewels he had noticed,
when my dog jumped upon him, and put him to much trouble to defend himself
with his sword. The dog, unable to grapple with an armed man, ran several
times through the house, and rushed into the rooms of the journeymen, which
had been left open because of the great heat. When he found they paid no heed
to his loud barking, he dragged their bed-clothes off; and when they still
heard nothing, he pulled first one and then another by the arm till he roused
them, and, barking furiously, ran before to show them where he wanted them to
go. At last it became clear that they refused to follow; for the traitors,
cross at being disturbed, threw stones and sticks at him; and this they could
well do, for I had ordered them to keep all night a lamp alight there; and in
the end they shut their rooms tight; so the dog, abandoning all hope of aid
from such rascals, set out alone again on his adventure. He ran down, and not
finding the thief in the shop, flew after him. When he got at him, he tore the
cape off his back. It would have gone hard with the fellow had he not called
for help to certain tailors, praying them for God`s sake to save him from a
mad dog; and they, believing what he said, jumped out and drove the dog off
with much trouble.
After sunrise my workmen went into the shop, and saw that it had been
broken open and all the boxes smashed. They began to scream at the top of
their voices: "Ah, woe is me! Ah, woe is me!" The clamour woke me, and I
rushed out in a panic. Appearing thus before them, they cried out: "Alas to
us! for we have been robbed by some one, who has broken and borne everything
away!" These words wrought so forcibly upon my mind that I dared not go to my
big chest and look if it still held the jewels of the Pope. So intense was the
anxiety, that I seemed to lose my eyesight, and told them they themselves must
unlock the chest, and see how many of the Pope`s gems were missing. The fellow
were all of them in their shirts; and when, on opening the chest, they saw the
precious stones and my work with them, they took heart of joy and shouted:
"There is no harm done; your piece and all the stones are here; but the thief
has left us naked to the shirt, because last night, by reason of the burning
heat, we took our clothes off in the shop and left them here." Recovering my
senses, I thanked God, and said: "Go and get yourselves new suits of clothes;
I will pay when I hear at leisure how the whole thing happened." What caused
me the most pain, and made me lose my senses, and take fright - so contrary to
my real nature - was the dread lest peradventure folk should fancy I had
trumped a story of the robber up to steal the jewels. It had already been paid
to Pope Clement by one of his most trusted servants, and by others, that is,
by Francesco del Nero, Zana de` Biliotti his accountant, the Bishop of Vasona,
and several such men: ^1 "Why, most blessed Father, do you confide gems of
that vast value to a young fellow, who is all fire, more passionate for arms
than for his art, and not yet thirty years of age?" The Pope asked in answer
if any one of them knew that I had done aught to justify such suspicions.
Whereto Francesco del Nero, his treasurer, replied: ^2 "No, most blessed
Father, because he has not as yet had an opportunity. "Whereto the Pope
rejoined: "I regard him as a thoroughly honest man; and if I saw with my own
eyes some crime he had committed, I should not believe it." This was the man
who ^3 caused me the greatest torment, and who suddenly came up before my
mind.
[Footnote 1: Of these people, we can trace the Bishop of Vasona. He was
Girolamo Schio or Schedo, a native of Vicenza, the confidential agent and
confessor of Clement VII., who obtained the See of Vaison in the county of
Avignon in 1523, and died at Rome in 1533. His successor in the bishopric was
Tomaso Cortesi, the Datary, mentioned above.]
[Footnote 2: Varchi gives a very ugly account of this man, Francesco del Nero,
who was nicknamed the Cra del Piccadiglio, in his History of Florence, book
iii. "In the whole city of Florence there never was born, in my belief, a man
of such irreligion or of such sordid avarice." Giovio confirms the statement.]
[Footnote 3: Questo fu quello che. This may be neuter: This was the
circumstance which.]
After telling the young men to provide themselves with fresh clothes, I
took my piece, together with the gems, setting them as well as I could in
their proper places, and went off at once with them to the Pope. Francesco del
Nero had already told him something of the trouble in my shop, and had put
suspicions in his head. So then, taking the thing rather ill than otherwise,
he shot a furious glance upon me, and cried haughtily: "What have you come to
do here? What is up?" "Here are all your precious stones, and not one of them
is missing." At this the Pope`s face cleared, and he said: "So then, you`re
welcome." I showed him the piece, and while he was inspecting it, I related to
him the whole story of the thief and of my agony, and what had been my
greatest trouble in the matter. During this speech, he oftentimes turned round
to look me sharply in the eyes; and Francesco del Nero being also in the
presence, this seemed to make him half sorry that he had not guessed the
truth. At last, breaking into laughter at the long tale I was telling, he sent
me off with these words: "Go, and take heed to be an honest man, as indeed I
know that you are."
|
