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Book FirstPart LXXXIII
Part LXXXIII
When I returned to bed, I felt so agitated that I could not get to sleep
again. My mind was made up to let blood as soon as day broke. However, I asked
advice of Messer Gaddi, and he referred to a wretched doctor-fellow he
employed, ^1 who asked me if I had been frightened. Now, just consider what a
judicious doctor this was, after I had narrated an occurrence of that gravity,
to ask me such a question! He was an empty fribbler, who kept perpetually
laughing about nothing at all. Simpering and sniggering, then, he bade me
drink a good cup of Greek wine, keep my spirits up, and not be frightened.
Messer Giovanni, however, said: "Master, a man of bronze or marble might be
frightened in such circumstances. How much more one of flesh and blood!" The
quack responded: "Monsignor, we are not all made after the same pattern; this
fellow is no man of bronze or marble, but of pure iron." Then he gave one of
his meaningless laughs, and putting his fingers on my wrist, said: "Feel here;
this is not a man`s pulse, but a lion`s or a dragon`s." At this, I, whose
blood was thumping in my veins, probably far beyond anything which that fool
of a doctor had learned from his Hippocrates or Galen, knew at once how
serious was my situation; yet wishing not to add to my uneasiness and to the
harm I had already taken, I made show of being in good spirits. While this was
happening, Messer Giovanni had ordered dinner, and we all of us sat down to
eat in company. I remembered that Messer Lodovico da Fano, Messer Antonio
Allegretti, Messer Giovanni Greco, all of them men of the finest scholarship,
and Messer Annibal Caro, who was then quite young, were present. At table the
conversation turned entirely upon my act of daring. They insisted on hearing
the whole story over and over again from my apprentice Cencio, who was a youth
of superlative talent, bravery, and extreme personal beauty. Each time that he
described my truculent behaviour, throwing himself into the attitudes I had
assumed, and repeating the words which I had used, he called up some fresh
detail to my memory. They kept asking him if he had been afraid; to which he
answered that they ought to ask me if I had been afraid, because he felt
precisely the same as I had.
[Footnote 1: Possibly Bernardino Lilii of Todi.]
All this chattering grew irksome to me; and since I still felt strongly
agitated, I rose at last from table, saying that I wanted to go and get new
clothes of blue silk and stuff for him and me; adding that I meant to walk in
procession after four days at the feast of Our Lady, and meant Cencio to carry
a white lighted torch on the occasion. Accordingly I took my leave, and had
the blue cloth cut, together with a handsome jacket of blue sarcenet and a
little doublet of the same; and I had a similar jacket and waistcoat made for
Cencio.
When these things had been cut out, I went to see the Pope, who told me
to speak with Messer Ambruogio; for he had given orders that I should execute
a large piece of golden plate. So I went to find Messer Ambruogio, who had
heard the whole of the affair of the Bargello, and had been in concert with my
enemies to bring me back to Rome, and had scolded the Bargello for not laying
hands on me. The man excused himself by saying that he could not do so in the
face of the safe-conduct which I held. Messer Ambruogio now began to talk
about the Pope`s commission, and bade me make drawings for it, saying that the
business should be put at once in train. Meanwhile the feast of Our Lady came
round. Now it is the custom for those who get a pardon upon this occasion to
give themselves up to prison; in order to avoid doing which I returned to the
Pope, and told his Holiness that I was very unwilling to go to prison, and
that I begged him to grant me the favour of a dispensation. The Pope answered
that such was the custom, and that I must follow it. Thereupon I fell again
upon my knees, and thanked him for the safe-conduct he had given me, saying
at the same time that I should go back with it to serve my Duke in Florence,
who was waiting for me so impatiently. On hearing this, the Pope turned to one
of his confidential servants and said: "Let Benvenuto get his grace without
the prison, and see that his moto proprio is made out in due form." As soon as
the document had been drawn up, his Holiness signed it; it was then registered
at the Capitol; afterwards, upon the day appointed, I walked in procession
very honourably between two gentlemen, and so got clear at last.
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