THE DUKE was staying at Livorno, where I went to visit him in order
merely to obtain release from his service. Now that I felt my vigour
returning, and saw that I was used for nothing, it pained me to lose
time which ought to have been spent upon my art. I made my mind up,
therefore, went to Livorno, and found my prince, who received me with
exceeding graciousness. Now I stayed there several days, and went out
riding daily with his Excellency. Consequently I had excellent
opportunities for saying all I wanted, since it was the Duke’s custom to
ride four miles out of Livorno along the sea-coast to the point where he
was erecting a little fort. Not caring to be troubled with a crowd of
people, he liked me to converse with him. So then, on one of these
occasions, having observed him pay me some remarkable attentions, I
entered into the affair of Sbietta and spoke as follows: “My lord, I
should like to narrate to your most illustrious Excellency a very
singular incident, which will explain why I was prevented from finishing
that clay model of Neptune on which I was working in the Loggia. Your
Excellency must know that I bought a farm for my life from Sbietta--” To
cut the matter short, I related the whole story in detail, without
contaminating truth with falsehood. Now when I came to the poison, I
remarked that if I had ever proved an acceptable servant in the sight of
his most illustrious Excellency, he ought not to punish Sbietta or those
who administered the poison, but rather to confer upon them some great
benefit, inasmuch as the poison was not enough to kill me, but had
exactly sufficed to cleanse me of a mortal viscosity from which I
suffered in my stomach and intestines. “The poison,” quoth I, “worked so
well, that whereas, before I took it, I had perhaps but three or four
years to live, I verily believe now that it has helped me to more than
twenty years by bettering my constitution. For this mercy I return
thanks to God with greater heartiness than ever; and this proves that a
proverb I have sometimes heard spoken is true, which runs as follows:--
‘God send us evil, that may work us good.’”
The Duke listened to my story through more than two miles of travel,
keeping his attention fixed, and only uttering: “Oh, the villains!” I
said, in conclusion, that I felt obliged to them, and opened other and
more cheerful subjects of conversation.
I kept upon the look-out for a convenient day; and when I found him well
disposed for what I wanted, I entreated his most illustrious Excellency
to dismiss me in a friendly spirit, so that I might not have to waste
the few years in which I should be fit to do anything. As for the
balance due upon my Perseus, he might give this to me when he judged it
opportune. Such was the pith of my discourse: but I expanded it with
lengthy compliments, expressing my gratitude toward his most illustrious
Excellency. To all this he made absolutely no answer, but rather seemed
to have taken my communication ill. On the following day Messer
Bartolommeo Concino, [1] one of the Duke’s secretaries, and among the
chiefest, came to me, and said with somewhat of a bullying air: “The
Duke bids me tell you that if you want your dismissal, he will grant it;
but if you choose work, he will give you plenty: God grant you may have
the power to execute all he orders.” I replied that I desired nothing
more than work to do, and would rather take it from the Duke than from
any man whatever in the world. Whether they were popes, emperors, or
kings, I should prefer to serve his most illustrious Excellency for a
halfpenny than any of the rest of them for a ducat. He then remarked:
“If that is your mind, you and he have struck a bargain without the need
of further speech. So, then, go back to Florence, and be unconcerned;
rely on the Duke’s goodwill towards you.” Accordingly I made my way
again to Florence.
Note 1. This man was the son of a peasant at Terranuova, in Valdarno. He
acquired great wealth and honour at the court of Duke Cosimo, and was
grandfather of the notorious Maréchal d’Ancre.