I THEN began to deliberate upon the best way of making my escape. No
sooner had I been locked in, than I went about exploring my prison; and
when I thought I had discovered how to get out of it, I pondered the
means of descending from the lofty keep, for so the great round central
tower is called. I took those new sheets of mine, which, as I have said
already, I had cut in strips and sewn together; then I reckoned up the
quantity which would be sufficient for my purpose. Having made this
estimate and put all things in order, I looked out a pair of pincers
which I had abstracted from a Savoyard belonging to the guard of the
castle. This man superintended the casks and cisterns; he also amused
himself with carpentering. Now he possessed several pairs of pincers,
among which was one both big and heavy. I then, thinking it would suit
my purpose, took it and hid it in my straw mattress. The time had now
come for me to use it; so I began to try the nails which kept the hinges
of my door in place. [1] The door was double, and the clinching of the
nails could not be seen; so that when I attempted to draw one out, I met
with the greatest trouble; in the end, however, I succeeded. When I had
drawn the first nail, I bethought me how to prevent its being noticed.
For this purpose I mixed some rust, which I had scraped from old iron,
with a little wax, obtaining exactly the same colour as the heads of the
long nails which I had extracted. Then I set myself to counterfeit these
heads and place them on the holdfasts; for each nail I extracted I made
a counterfeit in wax. I left the hinges attached to their door-posts at
top and bottom by means of some of the same nails that I had drawn; but
I took care to cut these and replace them lightly, so that they only
just supported the irons of the hinges.
All this I performed with the greatest difficulty, because the castellan
kept dreaming every night that I had escaped, which made him send from
time to time to inspect my prison. The man who came had the title and
behaviour of a catch-poll. He was called Bozza, and used always to bring
with him another of the same sort, named Giovanni and nicknamed
Pedignone; the latter was a soldier, and Bozza a serving-man. Giovanni
never entered my prison without saying something offensive to me. He
came from the district of Prato, and had been an apothecary in the town
there. Every evening he minutely examined the holdfasts of the hinges
and the whole chamber, and I used to say: “Keep a good watch over me,
for I am resolved by all means to escape.” These words bred a great
enmity between him and me, so that I was obliged to use precautions to
conceal my tools, that is to say, my pincers and a great big poniard and
other appurtenances. All these I put away together in my mattress, where
I also kept the strips of linen I had made. When day broke, I used
immediately to sweep my room out; and though I am by nature a lover of
cleanliness, at that time I kept myself unusually spick and span. After
sweeping up, I made my bed as daintily as I could, laying flowers upon
it, which a Savoyard used to bring me nearly every morning. He had the
care of the cistern and the casks, and also amused himself with
carpentering; it was from him I stole the pincers which I used in order
to draw out the nails from the holdfasts of the hinges.
Note 1. The door seems to have been hung upon hinges with plates nailed
into the posts. Cellini calls these plates 'bandelle.'