_What was the success of this stratagem._
I did not pass the Sunday without some uneasiness, fearing lest some
untoward circumstance might defeat our enterprise; but my confidant
having been to the usual place of rendezvous in the evening, returned
full of joy to announce to me that every thing had been executed as I
desired, and that Aguilera was preparing himself to play his part well
the next day. This news restored my spirits, and I waited patiently for
the hour when I should appear before the banker.
No sooner had it arrived, than I repaired to his house; he was alone in
his counting-house. After saluting him very politely, I told him I had
called to request that he would return me what I had brought him a few
days before. He inquired with astonishment what I had brought him.
“Zounds!” said I, “why the gold and silver specie which I deposited in
your hands.” “What gold and silver,” answered he. “Oh, oh!” replied I,
“what you affect to joke? Upon my soul, this is not bad.” “Much more of
a joke,” rejoined he, “that you should expect me to refund what has
never been given to me.” “Let us have no more jesting, however,” said I,
“on matters of business, which, I assure you, is by no means to my
taste.” “Surely,” said he, “it must be you that jest: I recollect well
enough that a few days since you called upon me, and promised that
within an hour you would bring me twelve thousand franks; but you
forfeited your word.” “Rather,” answered I, “confess that you have lost
your memory. I protest that I delivered that sum into your own hands,
and will not quit this house until it be refunded in the very same coins
in which I paid it to you.” “Go about your business,” replied he, “or I
shall grow impatient with your nonsense. I neither know any thing of
you, nor have I ever had any thing that belongs to you. Go and get your
money from those to whom you entrusted it.”
As the banker and I began now every moment to assume a higher tone, all
the passers-by stopped to listen to our conversation, very anxious to
know the subject of our dispute. That they might not be long in suspense
I cried aloud, “Oh, traitor and infamous thief! may the justice of God
and man unite to punish you! When I entrusted you with my money you
received me most obsequiously, but now I am come to reclaim it you
affect not to know who I am, and with the most bare-faced effrontery
deny the deposit! Cause the money to be counted out to me on this table
instantly, or I will tear your soul out!” The banker on his side called
me all the names I deserved, until from abusing each other we insensibly
came to action, and he endeavoured to push me out of the room by his
shoulders; but I repulsed him with such a blow as laid him sprawling on
the floor. Aguilera then rushed upon me with a furious air, and gave me
a few fisticuffs, which I returned in such sort, that several of the
spectators entered to separate us. The confidential clerk finding
himself restrained from rejoining me, pretended to struggle with those
who held him, like a madman; while on my side, with my eyes glittering
and my mouth foaming with rage, I defied him to approach me.
The affray had already lasted an hour, when the Bargello, by chance, or
perhaps from some one’s having told him what was going on, made his
appearance. The first thing he did was to ask the subject of our
quarrel, and the struggle now was which of us should speak first. He
desired us both to hold our tongues; then having informed himself which
of us was the complainant, he desired me to speak first, after which he
would hear what my adversary had to say. At these words a profound
silence succeeded, and every one present listened attentively. “Six days
since,” said I, “I came into this counting-house, and requested this
same Signor Plati to allow me to deposit in his hands a considerable sum
of money which I had brought to Milan with me, and which I did not think
sufficiently secure at the inn where I lodge. He answered with much
politeness that I had only to send him the money, and he would take care
of it as long as I thought proper. I accordingly returned home
immediately, and returned an hour after with my servant, who carried in
a gilt casket a thousand pistoles in gold, and in a bag stained with
ink and tied with a red ribbon three hundred and thirty crowns, thirty
of which were Roman. The banker counted and weighed the coin, which he
put with their specification in the casket and bag again, and then
locked them altogether in his strong box.”
Up to this moment the banker, not having dared to interrupt me, although
in the fury that possessed him he could with difficulty restrain, had
contented himself by raising his hands and eyes towards Heaven to
witness my imposture: but his patience now entirely forsook him, and he
could hold out no longer. “You see before you,” cried he, “one of the
most bare-faced liars on the face of the earth. Should there be found in
my house a casket such as that he mentions, I shall be content to
forfeit my life and every thing I possess in the world.” “And if what I
have told you be not true,” cried I, in my turn, “I will consent that
the banker enjoy my property in peace, and that my ears be cut off like
a traitor and audacious thief who dares demand what does not belong to
him. It is a very easy matter,” continued I, “to discover the truth.
Nothing remains but to open the strong box, where you will find my
casket and bag, with the accounts which will inform you that the money
belongs to me. Give orders, Signor Bargello, give orders immediately, I
beseech you, that this old rogue show you his account books, where you
will see what he himself wrote the day he received the money.” “You are
right,” replied the Bargello, “and further conversation would be
superfluous. Come, Signor Plati, if this gentleman gave you the specie,
there will of course be an entry in your books.” “Undoubtedly,” answered
the banker; “but I have no fear of your finding it, and if there should
be any mention made of twelve thousand franks which this stranger
assures you he entrusted to me, I will confess that he tells the truth,
and that I am the impostor.” At the same time he told his clerk to reach
him down the large account book out of his press. Aguilera had no sooner
handed this to him, than I cried out: “No, no, thou knave! this is not
the book that will bear witness against thee, it was a smaller but
longer one.” Aguilera then said to his master, “He must surely mean our
journal.” “Let it be the journal then,” replied the banker; “bring
forward all the books in the house.” Aguilera then produced the journal,
and asked me if that was the one I meant. I replied that it was. The
Bargello immediately began to look it over, and finding in it what our
colleague had written by my order, he read the following words in a loud
voice:
“_This day, the 13th of February 1586, Don Juan Osorio remitted me nine
hundred and sixty pistoles in gold coin, Spanish and Italian, and ten
quadruples, which make together the sum of one thousand pistoles, and
which will be found in my strong box in a gilt casket. Moreover, I
received from the said Don Juan the same day, a bag tied with red
ribbon, in which are three hundred and thirty crowns, thirty of which
are Roman._”
The company had no sooner heard this entry read than they all began to
murmur against Signor Plati, thus giving me a decided advantage over
him. Fortunately also for me, the banker did not pass in the town for an
over-scrupulous man; so that every one readily believed the possibility
of his having played me the roguish trick of which I accused him. The
Bargello made him read these words, and asked him if he had not written
them. The citizen, confounded by so extraordinary a circumstance,
answered in an agitation which almost deprived him of the power of
speech, “that he had written the first words, but not the remainder.”
“How so,” replied the officer of justice, “it appears to be all in the
same hand-writing.” “I cannot deny that,” rejoined the banker, “but,
nevertheless it is not all my writing.” “It will avail you nothing to
deny it in this manner,” said the Bargello; “you must prove its
falsity.”
A fresh scene now contributed to convince the standers-by that I had not
complained without cause. A voice of thunder resounded through the
house, and a man with his kitchen apron and a large carving knife at his
side made his appearance. This was mine host, whom Sayavedra had been in
search of, and who, hearing that the banker denied having received the
money, was furiously exasperated against him. “Why,” cried he as he
entered, “do they not hang this arch Jew? Why not fire his house, and
burn him with all his race?” Then perceiving the officer of justice,
“can you allow,” said he, in a respectful and more moderate tone, “that
a cavalier should be robbed, ruined, and struck, with impunity, for
having trusted his property to a thief. This good gentleman lodges at my
house, and I most solemnly assure you, that I have seen and handled the
casket, as well as the bag which he has unfortunately confided to this
banker, who is already but too well known at Milan for what he really
is.”
Signor Plati, thunderstruck as he was, said what he could in his own
defence; but his feeble voice, which was scarcely audible at two paces
from him, stood no chance with that of my landlord, which could be
distinctly heard from one end of the street to the other. The people,
therefore, who generally give the palm in such cases to him who makes
the most noise, no longer doubting the justice of my complaint, cried
aloud, that the banker should be compelled instantly to refund. The
Bargello, addressing himself to the accused, represented to him, “that
it was in vain to resist in retaining money which did not belong to him;
that he would be compelled to make restitution, and that it was his duty
to search his house for the casket and bag. Give me,” added he, “the key
of your strong box; let us begin by visiting that, as your accuser
affirms it is there you have deposited them.” Plati being apprehensive
of pillage during this uproar could not make up his mind to deliver the
key; upon which the general cry was to lead him to prison. “We will do
better than that,” said the officer, “if he obey not this instant, I
will have the strong box forced open.”
The unfortunate banker seeing that all resistance was useless, drew from
his pocket the key, and delivered it into the hands of the officer, who,
after having chosen four citizens out of those present, to be witness of
the intended ceremony, opened the strong box before them and Plati, who
almost fainted away when the gilt casket and bag were drawn forth. The
Bargello then turning to this poor devil, “friend,” said he, “did you
not say you would forfeit your life and property if this casket were
found in your house? what if we take you at your word? Good heavens!
what a trustworthy banker.” Thus saying, he shut down the strong box,
and held up the casket in one hand and the bag in the other. The company
present no sooner saw them, than they began, especially mine host, to
load the banker with curses and revilings. The officer, in order to sift
the thing to the bottom, determined to open the casket. He asked me if I
had the key. I drew it from my pocket, and handed it to him. The first
thing that presented itself to his view, was the specification in these
terms: “_This Casket contains nine hundred and sixty pistoles in gold,
and ten quadruples; the whole making one thousand pistoles, and
belonging to Don Juan Osorio._” The quadruples were in a parcel by
themselves. These he shewed to the banker, and then proceeded to open
the bag in which were found the thirty Roman crowns and the others with
a similar account.
The cries of the company redoubled at sight of the sums exactly as I had
stated them, and every one pressed the Bargello to give me up the casket
and bag; which the officer would immediately have acceded to, if I had
not declared that I would not receive my money except at the hands of
justice, since we were in a city where, thank God, upright judges were
to be found. The banker, being once more called upon to say what he had
to allege against such positive proof, answered, more dead than alive,
and not knowing what to think of an adventure which appeared so natural;
“that it was all magic to him, and that the devil must assuredly have
had a hand in it.” “If you have no better argument than that to bring
forward,” said the officer to him, “you have every chance of losing your
cause, and being punished severely to boot.” Thus saying, he left the
casket and bag in the custody of a rich merchant in the neighbourhood,
and went to make his report to the Judges, who cited Signor Plati and me
to appear before them the next morning. The banker was himself so ill
that he found it impossible to attend, and contented himself by sending
his wife and clerk with some of his friends. As for me, I appeared
boldly accompanied by Sayavedra, my landlord and landlady, all three of
whom were interrogated alternately, and asserted a great deal,
especially the two last, more than they had either seen or heard. The
judges heard Aguilera and his mistress in their turns, who confessed
that not having been in the counting-house the whole of the day on which
I stated that I had brought the money, they could not conscientiously
swear that I had not been there.
Upon all these depositions the magistrates condemned my adversary to
restore my gold and silver, and pay all costs, prohibiting him from ever
practising the profession of banker again in Milan. The Bargello, in
execution of this sentence, conducted me to the merchant with whom he
had left the casket and bag, and having restored them to me, I returned
triumphantly to my inn. When I arrived there, I was not a little time
occupied in receiving congratulations on my success. The landlord and
his wife among the rest could not moderate their joy. To testify my
gratitude I made them some trifling presents, and all their servants had
reason to praise my generous disposition.