come when the other will be found the cause of something even worse.” He
then begged me, if I should be asked, not to say that he was with me
when I fired the gun; and for the rest bade me be of good cheer. The
commotion which the affair made was enormous, and lasted a long while.
However, I will not enlarge upon it further, only adding that I was
within an inch of revenging my father on Messer Jacopo Salviati, who had
grievously injured him, according to my father’s complaints. As it was,
unwittingly I gave the fellow a great fright. Of Farnese I shall say
nothing here, because it will appear in its proper place how well it
would have been if I had killed him.
Note 1. Benedetto Accolti of Arezzo, Archbishop of Ravenna in 1524,
obtained the hat in 1527, three days before the sack of Rome. He was a
distinguished man of letters. Niccolò Gaddi was created Cardinal on the
same day as Accolti. We shall hear more of him in Cellini’s pages.
Note 2. Alessandro Farnese, Dean of the Sacred College, and afterwards
Pope Paul III. Of Giacopo Salviati we have already heard, p. 14.
Note 3. 'Loro preti.' Perhaps 'their priests.'
XXXVII
I PURSUED my business of artilleryman, and every day performed some
extraordinary feat, whereby the credit and the favour I acquired with
the Pope was something indescribable. There never passed a day but what
I killed one or another of our enemies in the besieging army. On one
occasion the Pope was walking round the circular keep, [1] when he
observed a Spanish Colonel in the Prati; he recognised the man by
certain indications, seeing that this officer had formerly been in his
service; and while he fixed his eyes on him, he kept talking about him.
I, above by the Angel, knew nothing of all this, but spied a fellow down
there, busying himself about the trenches with a javelin in his hand; he
was dressed entirely in rose-colour; and so, studying the worst that I
could do against him, I selected a gerfalcon which I had at hand; it is
a piece of ordnance larger and longer than a swivel, and about the size
of a demiculverin. This I emptied, and loaded it again with a good
charge of fine powder mixed with the coarser sort; then I aimed it
exactly at the man in red, elevating prodigiously, because a piece of
that calibre could hardly be expected to carry true at such a distance.
I fired, and hit my man exactly in the middle. He had trussed his sword
in front, [2] for swagger, after a way those Spaniards have; and my
ball, when it struck him, broke upon the blade, and one could see the
fellow cut in two fair halves. The Pope, who was expecting nothing of
this kind, derived great pleasure and amazement from the sight, both
because it seemed to him impossible that one should aim and hit the mark
at such a distance, and also because the man was cut in two, and he
could not comprehend how this should happen. He sent for me, and asked
about it. I explained all the devices I had used in firing; but told him
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