Maestro Francesco then gave orders that I should be removed from my room
and carried to one of the hills there are in Rome. Cardinal Cornaro,
when he heard of my improvement, had me transported to a place of his on
Monte Cavallo. The very evening I was taken with great precautions in a
chair, well wrapped up and protected from the cold. No sooner had I
reached the place than I began to vomit, during which there came from my
stomach a hairy worm about a quarter of a cubit in length: the hairs
were long, and the worm was very ugly, speckled of divers colours,
green, black, and red. They kept and showed it to the doctor, who said
he had never seen anything of the sort before, and afterwards remarked
to Felice: “Now take care of your Benvenuto, for he is cured. Do not
permit him any irregularities; for though he has escaped this time,
another disorder now would be the death of him. You see his malady has
been so grave, that if we had brought him the extreme unction, we might
not have been in time. Now I know that with a little patience and time
he will live to execute more of his fine works.” Then he turned to me
and said: “My Benvenuto, be prudent, commit no excesses, and when you
are quite recovered, I beg you to make me a Madonna with your own hand,
and I will always pay my devotions to it for your sake.” This I promised
to do, and then asked him whether it would be safe for me to travel so
far as to Florence. He advised me to wait till I was stronger, and till
we could observe how Nature worked in me.
Note 1. 'Un fiasco,' holding more than a quart.
LXXXVI
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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