|
Book FirstPart XCIII
Part XCIII
I went on working at my book, and when I had finished it I took it to the
Pope, who was in good truth unable to refrain from commending it greatly. I
begged him to send me with it to the Emperor, as he had promised. He replied
that he would do what he thought fit, and that I had performed my part of the
business. So he gave orders that I should be well paid. These two pieces of
work, on which I had spent upwards of two months, brought me in five hundred
crowns: for the diamond I was paid one hundred and fifty crowns and no more;
the rest was given me for the cover of the book, which, however, was worth
more than a thousand, being enriched with multitudes of figures, arabesques,
enamellings, and jewels. I took what I could get and made my mind up to leave
Rome without permission. The Pope meanwhile sent my book to the Emperor by the
hand of his grandson Signor Sforza. ^1 Upon accepting it, the Emperor
expressed great satisfaction, and immediately asked for me. Young Signor
Sforza, who had received his instructions, said that I had been prevented by
illness from coming. All this was reported to me.
[Footnote 1: Sforza Sforza, son of Bosio, Count of Santa Fiore, and of
Costanza Farnese, the Pope`s natural daughter. He was a youth of sixteen at
this epoch.]
My preparations for the journey into France were made; and I wished to go
alone, but was unable on account of a lad in my service called Ascanio. He was
of very tender age, and the most admirable servant in the world. When I took
him he had left a former master, named Francesco, a Spaniard and a goldsmith.
I did not much like to take him, lest I should get into a quarrel with the
Spaniard, and said to Ascanio: "I do not want to have you, for fear of
offending your master." He contrived that his master should write me a note
informing me that I was free to take him. So he had been with me some months;
and since he came to us both thin and pale of face, we called him "the little
old man;" indeed I almost thought he was one, partly because he was so good a
servant, and partly because he was so clever that it seemed unlikely he should
have such talent at thirteen years, which he affirmed his age to be. Now to go
back to the point from which I started, he improved in person during those few
months, and gaining in flesh, became the handsomest youth in Rome. Being the
excellent servant which I have described, and showing marvellous aptitude for
our art, I felt a warm and fatherly affection for him, and kept him clothed as
if he had been my own son. When the boy perceived the improvement he had made,
he esteemed it a good piece of luck that he had come into my hands; and he
used frequently to go and thank his former master, who had been the cause of
his prosperity. Now this man had a handsome young woman to wife, who said to
him: "Surgetto" (that was what they called him when he lived with them), "what
have you been doing to become so handsome?" Ascanio answered: "Madonna
Francesca, it is my master who has made me so handsome, and far more good to
boot." In her petty spiteful way she took it very ill that Ascanio should
speak so; and having no reputation for chastity, she contrived to caress the
lad more perhaps than was quite seemly, which made me notice that he began to
visit her more frequently than his wont had been.
One day Ascanio took to beating one of our little shopboys, who, when I
came home from out of doors, complained to me with tears that Ascanio had
knocked him about without any cause. Hearing this, I said to Ascanio: "With
cause or without cause, see you never strike any one of my family, or else
I`ll make you feel how I can strike myself." He bandied words with me, which
made me jump on him and give him the severest drubbing with both fists and
feet that he had ever felt. As soon as he escaped my clutches, he ran away
without cape or cap, and for two days I did not know where he was, and took no
care to find him. After that time a Spanish gentleman, called Don Diego, came
to speak to me. He was the most generous man in the world. I had made, and was
making, some things for him, which had brought us well acquainted. He told me
that Ascanio had gone back to his old master, and asked me, if I thought it
proper, to send him the cape and cap which I had given him. Thereupon I said
that Francesco had behaved badly, and like a lowbred fellow; for if he had
told me, when Ascanio first came back to him, that he was in his house, I
should very willingly have given him leave; but now that he had kept him two
days without informing me, I was resolved he should not have him; and let him
take care that I do not set eyes upon the lad in his house. This message was
reported by Don Diego, but it only made Francesco laugh. The next morning I
saw Ascanio working at some trifles in wire at his master`s side. As I was
passing he bowed to me, and his master almost laughed me in the face. He sent
again to ask through Don Diego whether I would not give Ascanio back the
clothes he had received from me; but if not, he did not mind, and Ascanio
should not want for clothes. When I heard this, I turned to Don Diego and
said: "Don Diego, sir, in all your dealings you are the most liberal and
worthy man I ever knew, but that Francesco is quite the opposite of you; he is
nothing better than a worthless and dishonoured renegade. Tell him from me
that if he does not bring Ascanio here himself to my shop before the bell for
vespers, I will assuredly kill him; and tell Ascanio that if he does not quit
that house at the hour appointed for his master, I will treat him much in the
same way." Don Diego made no answer, but went and inspired such terror in
Francesco that he knew not what to do with himself. Ascanio meanwhile had gone
to find his father, who had come to Rome from Tagliacozzo, his birthplace; and
this man also, when he heard about the row, advised Francesco to bring Ascanio
back to me. Francesco said to Ascanio: "Go on your own account, and your
father shall go with you." Don Diego put in: "Francesco, I foresee that
something very serious will happen; you know better than I do what a man
Benvenuto is; take the lad back courageously, and I will come with you." I had
prepared myself, and was pacing up and down the shop waiting for the bell to
vespers; my mind was made up to do one of the bloodiest deeds which I had ever
attempted in my life. Just then arrived Don Diego, Francesco, Ascanio, and his
father, whom I did not know. When Ascanio entered, I gazed at the whole
company with eyes of rage, and Francesco, pale as death, began as follows:
"See here, I have brought back Ascanio, whom I kept with me, not thinking that
I should offend you." Ascanio added humbly: "Master, pardon me; I am at your
disposal here, to do whatever you shall order." Then I said: "Have you come to
work out the time you promised me?" He answered yes, and that he meant never
to leave me. Then I turned and told the shopboy he had beaten to hand him the
bundle of clothes, and said to him: "Here are all the clothes I gave you; take
with them your discharge, and go where you like." Don Diego stood astonished
at this, which was quite the contrary of what he had expected; while Ascanio
with his father besought me to pardon and take him back. On my asking who it
was who spoke for him, he said it was his father; to whom, after many
entreaties, I replied: "Because you are his father, for your sake I will take
him back."
|
