“My housekeeper, whose name was Mona Fiore da Castel del Rio, was one of the most sensible and affectionate women in the world; she rebuked me for giving way to vain fears, and at the same time attended me with the greatest kindness and care imaginable; however, seeing me so very ill and terrified to such a degree, she could not contain herself, but shed a flood of tears which she endeavoured to conceal from me. Whilst we were both in this deep affliction, I perceived a man enter the room who in his person appeared to be as crooked and distorted as a great S, and began to express himself in these terms, with a tone of voice as dismal and melancholy as those who exhort and pray with persons who are going to be executed: ‘Alas! poor Benvenuto, your work is spoiled, and the misfortune admits of no remedy.’ “No sooner had I heard the words uttered by this messenger of evil, but I cried out so loud that my voice might be heard to the skies, and got out of bed. I began immediately to dress, and giving plenty of kicks and cuffs to the maidservants and the boy as they offered to help me on with my clothes, I complained bitterly in these terms: ‘O you envious and treacherous wretches, this is a piece of villainy contrived on purpose; but I swear by the living God that I will sift it to the bottom, and before I die give such proofs who I am as shall not fail to astonish the whole world.’ Having huddled on my clothes, I went with a mind boding evil to the shop, where I found all those whom I had left so alert and in such high spirits, standing in the utmost confusion and astonishment. I thereupon addressed them thus: ‘Listen all of you to what I am going to say; and since you either would not or could not follow the method I pointed out, obey me now that I am present; my work is before us, and let none of you offer to oppose or contradict me, for such cases as this require activity and not counsel.’ Hereupon one Alessandro Lastricali had the assurance to say to me: ‘Look you, Benvenuto, you have undertaken a work which our art cannot compass, and which is not to be effected by human power.’ “Hearing these words I turned round in such a passion, and seemed so bent upon mischief that both he and all the rest unanimously cried out to me: ‘Give your orders, and we will all second you in whatever you command; we will assist you as long as we have breath in our bodies.’ These kind and affectionate words they uttered, as I firmly believe, in a persuasion that I was upon the point of expiring. I went directly to examine the furnace, and saw all the metal in it concreted. I thereupon ordered two of the helpers to step over the way to Capretta, a butcher, for a load of young oak which had been above a year drying, and had been offered me by Maria Ginevra, wife to the said Capretta.