DURING this while I had sent my devoted comrade Felice back to Rome, to
look after our business there. When I could raise my head a little from
the bolster, which was at the end of fifteen days, although I was unable
to walk upon my feet, I had myself carried to the palace of the Medici,
and placed upon the little upper terrace. There they seated me to wait
until the Duke went by. Many of my friends at court came up to greet me,
and expressed surprise that I had undergone the inconvenience of being
carried in that way, while so shattered by illness; they said that I
ought to have waited till I was well, and then to have visited the Duke.
A crowd of them collected, all looking at me as a sort of miracle; not
merely because they had heard that I was dead, but far more because I
had the look of a dead man. Then publicly, before them all, I said how
some wicked scoundrel had told my lord the Duke that I had bragged I
meant to be the first to scale his Excellency’s walls, and also that I
had abused him personally; wherefore I had not the heart to live or die
till I had purged myself of that infamy, and found out who the audacious
rascal was who had uttered such calumnies against me. At these words a
large number of those gentlemen came round, expressing great compassion
for me; one said one thing, one another, and I told them I would never
go thence before I knew who had accused me. At these words Maestro
Agostino, the Duke’s tailor, made his way through all those gentlemen,
and said: “If that is all you want to know, you shall know, it at this
very moment.”
Giorgio the painter, whom I have mentioned, happened just then to pass,
and Maestro Agostino exclaimed: “There is the man who accused you; now
you know yourself if it be true or not.” As fiercely as I could, not
being able to leave my seat, I asked Giorgio if it was true that he had
accused me. He denied that it was so, and that he had ever said anything
of the sort. Maestro Agostino retorted: “You gallows-bird! don’t you
know that I know it for most certain?” Giorgio made off as quickly as he
could, repeating that he had not accused me. Then, after a short while,
the Duke came by; whereupon I had myself raised up before his
Excellency, and he halted. I told him that I had come therein that way
solely in order to clear my character. The Duke gazed at me, and
marvelled I was still alive; afterwards he bade me take heed to be an
honest man and regain my health.
When I reached home, Niccolò da Monte Aguto came to visit me, and told
me that I had escaped one of the most dreadful perils in the world,
quite contrary to all his expectations, for he had seen my ruin written
with indelible ink; now I must make haste to get well, and afterwards
take French leave, because my jeopardy came from a quarter and a man who
was able to destroy me. He then said, “Beware,” and added: “What
displeasure have you given to that rascal Ottaviano de’ Medici?” I
answered that I had done nothing to displease him, but that he had
injured me; and told him all the affair about the Mint. He repeated:
“Get hence as quickly as you can, and be of good courage, for you will
see your vengeance executed sooner than you expect.” I the best
attention to my health, gave Pietro Pagolo advice about stamping the
coins, and then went off upon my way to Rome without saying a word to
the Duke or anybody else.