WHILE I was engaged in prosecuting my affairs with so much vigour, there
arrived a letter sent post-haste to me by the Cardinal of Ferrara, which
ran as follows:-
'“Benvenuto, our dear friend,-During these last days the most Christian
King here made mention of you, and said that he should like to have you
in his service. Whereto I answered that you had promised me, whenever I
sent for you to serve his Majesty, that you would come at once. His
Majesty then answered:’It is my will that provision for his journey,
according to his merits, should be sent him;’ and immediately ordered
his Admiral to make me out an order for one thousand golden crowns upon
the treasurer of the Exchequer. The Cardinal de’ Gaddi, who was present
at this conversation, advanced immediately, and told his Majesty that it
was not necessary to make these dispositions, seeing that he had sent
you money enough, and that you were already on the journey. If then, as
I think probable, the facts are quite contrary to those assertions of
Cardinal Gaddi, reply to me without delay upon the receipt of this
letter; for I will undertake to gather up the fallen thread, and have
the promised money given you by this magnanimous King.”'
Now let the world take notice, and all the folk that dwell on it, what
power malignant stars with adverse fortune exercise upon us human
beings! I had not spoken twice in my lifetime to that little simpleton
of a Cardinal de’ Gaddi; nor do I think that he meant by this
bumptiousness of his to do me any harm, but only, through
lightheadedness and senseless folly, to make it seem as though he also
held the affairs of artists, whom the King was wanting, under his own
personal supervision, just as the Cardinal of Ferrara did. But
afterwards he was so stupid as not to tell me anything at all about the
matter; elsewise, it is certain that my wish to shield a silly mannikin
from reproach, if only for our country’s sake, would have made me find
out some excuse to mend the bungling of his foolish self-conceit.
Immediately upon the receipt of Cardinal Ferrara’s letter, I answered
that about Cardinal de’ Gaddi I knew absolutely nothing, and that even
if he had made overtures of that kind to me, I should not have left
Italy without informing his most reverend lordship. I also said that I
had more to do in Rome than at any previous time; but that if his most
Christian Majesty made sign of wanting me, one word of his, communicated
by so great a prince as his most reverend lordship, would suffice to
make me set off upon the spot, leaving all other concerns to take their
chance.
After I had sent my letter, that traitor, the Perugian workman, devised
a piece of malice against me, which succeeded at once, owing to the
avarice of Pope Paolo da Farnese, but also far more to that of his
bastard, who was then called Duke of Castro. [1] The fellow in question
informed one of Signor Pier Luigi’s secretaries that, having been with
me as workman several years, he was acquainted with all my affairs, on
the strength of which he gave his word to Signor Pier Luigi that I was
worth more than eighty thousand ducats, and that the greater part of
this property consisted in jewels, which jewels belonged to the Church,
and that I had stolen them in Castel Sant’ Angelo during the sack of
Rome, and that all they had to do was to catch me on the spot with
secrecy.
It so happened that I had been at work one morning, more than three
hours before daybreak, upon the trousseau of the bride I mentioned;
then, while my shop was being opened and swept out, I put my cape on to
go abroad and take the air. Directing my steps along the Strada Giulia,
I turned into Chiavica, and at this corner Crespino, the Bargello, with
all his constables, made up to me, and said: “You are the Pope’s
prisoner.” I answered: “Crespino, you have mistaken your man.” “No,”
said Crespino, “you are the artist Benvenuto, and I know you well, and I
have to take you to the Castle of Sant’ Angelo, where lords go, and men
of accomplishments, your peers.” Upon that four of his under-officers
rushed on me, and would have seized by force a dagger which I wore, and
some rings I carried on my finger; but Crespino rebuked them: “Not a man
of you shall touch him: it is quite enough if you perform your duty, and
see that he does not escape me.” Then he came up, and begged me with
words of courtesy to surrender my arms. While I was engaged in doing
this, it crossed my mind that exactly on that very spot I had
assassinated Pompeo. They took me straightway to castle, and locked me
in an upper chamber in the keep. This was the first time that I ever
smelt a prison up to the age I then had of thirty-seven years.
Note 1. He had been invested with the Duchy of Castro in 1537.