with such a crowd of men, called out: “It is only peace, and nothing
else, we ask of you.” Accordingly he promised that the governor of Rome
and his catchpoles should give me no trouble. Then we made peace, and I
returned to my shop, where I could not stay an hour without that
Neapolitan nobleman either coming to see me or sending for me.
Meanwhile Luigi Pulci, having recovered from his wound, rode every day
upon the black horse which was so well trained to heel and bridle. One
day, among others, after it had rained a little, and he was making his
horse curvet just before Pantasilea’s door, he slipped and fell, with
the horse upon him. His right leg was broken short off in the thigh; and
after a few days he died there in Pantisilea’s lodgings, discharging
thus the vow he registered so heartily to Heaven. Even so may it be seen
that God keeps account of the good and the bad, and gives to each one
what he merits.
Note 1. The Porta Castello was the gate called after the Castle of S.
Angelo. Prati, so far as I can make out, was an open space between the
Borgo and the Bridge of S. Angelo. In order to get inside Rome itself,
Cellini had to pass a second gate. His own lodging and Pantasilea’s
house were in the quarter of the Bianchi, where are now the Via Giulia
and Via de’ Banchi Vecchi.
XXXIV
THE WHOLE world was now in warfare. [1] Pope Clement had sent to get
some troops from Giovanni de’ Medici, and when they came, they made such
disturbances in Rome, that it was ill living in open shops. [2] On this
account I retired to a good snug house behind the Banchi, where I worked
for all the friends I had acquired. Since I produced few things of much
importance at that period, I need not waste time in talking about them.
I took much pleasure in music and amusements of the kind. On the death
of Giovanni de’ Medici in Lombardy, the Pope, at the advice of Messer
Jacopo Salviati, dismissed the five bands he had engaged; and when the
Constable of Bourbon knew there were no troops in Rome, he pushed his
army with the utmost energy up to the city. The whole of Rome upon this
flew to arms. I happened to be intimate with Alessandro, the son of
Piero del Bene, who, at the time when the Colonnesi entered Rome, had
requested me to guard his palace. [3] On this more serious occasion,
therefore, he prayed me to enlist fifty comrades for the protection of
the said house, appointing me their captain, as I had been when the
Colonnesi came. So I collected fifty young men of the highest courage,
and we took up our quarters in his palace, with good pay and excellent
appointments.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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