DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32873#0223
CH.vii] LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI 141
looking out (over the place) where the tub had fallen
heard some people saying: " It would be a good thing
to kill those gunners"; for which cause I trained two
falconets upon the stairs that led up to us, resolving in my
mind to fire one of those falconets into the first man that
mounted them. The servants of Cardinal Farnese must
have been ordered by him to come and do me some in-
jury; for which reason I got myself in readiness and
held a fuse in my hand. Recognizing some of them I
said: "You drones/ if you don't clear out from here, and
if there is any of you that dares set foot upon those stairs,
I have two falconets here ready with which I will pound
you to dust; and go and tell the Cardinal, that I have
done what my superiors ordered me to do, which things
are planned, and done for the defence of those priests/
and not for their injury." When they had taken them-
selves off, the said lord Horatio Baglioni himself came
running, whom I ordered to stand back, lest I slew him,
for I knew very well who he was. His lordship, not
without trepidation, paused a little, and called out to
me "Benvenuto, I am your friend." To which I re-
plied: " My lord, mount alone, and then you can come
in any way that you like." His lordship, who was very
haughty, stopped a little, and said to me irritably: "I
have a good mind not to come up further and to do
exactly the opposite of what I intended to do for you."
To which I replied, that, since I had been set in that
post to defend others, so also I was prepared to defend
myself. He assured me that he was coming alone; but
* that is to say, "Men who are of no
service except to consume victuals."
^ A77v^?v/2'= perhaps "their priests."
looking out (over the place) where the tub had fallen
heard some people saying: " It would be a good thing
to kill those gunners"; for which cause I trained two
falconets upon the stairs that led up to us, resolving in my
mind to fire one of those falconets into the first man that
mounted them. The servants of Cardinal Farnese must
have been ordered by him to come and do me some in-
jury; for which reason I got myself in readiness and
held a fuse in my hand. Recognizing some of them I
said: "You drones/ if you don't clear out from here, and
if there is any of you that dares set foot upon those stairs,
I have two falconets here ready with which I will pound
you to dust; and go and tell the Cardinal, that I have
done what my superiors ordered me to do, which things
are planned, and done for the defence of those priests/
and not for their injury." When they had taken them-
selves off, the said lord Horatio Baglioni himself came
running, whom I ordered to stand back, lest I slew him,
for I knew very well who he was. His lordship, not
without trepidation, paused a little, and called out to
me "Benvenuto, I am your friend." To which I re-
plied: " My lord, mount alone, and then you can come
in any way that you like." His lordship, who was very
haughty, stopped a little, and said to me irritably: "I
have a good mind not to come up further and to do
exactly the opposite of what I intended to do for you."
To which I replied, that, since I had been set in that
post to defend others, so also I was prepared to defend
myself. He assured me that he was coming alone; but
* that is to say, "Men who are of no
service except to consume victuals."
^ A77v^?v/2'= perhaps "their priests."