DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32874#0042
14 LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI [BK. i
pretending that he was paying no attention, immediately
with greatest ingenuity understood it all most excellently.
And, as I have said above, that excellent man, the
Castellan, let me go freely all over the Castello; and
not even at night did he lock me in, as he did all the
others; he let me also work at every thing that I wished,
whether in gold, silver, or wax; and although I had
laboured several weeks upon a certain basin that I was
making for the Cardinal of Ferrara, finding myself incon-
venienced by my imprisonment, it became a weariness
to me to carry out that sort of work; and, for less dis-
comfort, I only worked upon certain little figures of mine
in wax; of which wax the said friar endeavoured to get
hold of a piece, and with the said piece he set in opera-
tion that experiment with the keys that I had so unwisely
shown him. He had taken as a companion and assistant
a clerk who was in the service of the said
Castellan. This clerk was called Luigi, and he was a
native of Padua. When they were desirous of having
the said keys made, the locksmith betrayed them; and
since the Castellan came several times to see me in my
chamber, and perceived that I was working with that
kind of wax, he immediately recognized the said wax,
and said: " Although to this poor man Benvenuto there
has been done one of the greatest wrongs that was ever
committed, he ought not to do such acts as these to-
wards me, for I have done for him such kindness as I
ought not to do: now I shall keep him most straitly
locked up, and will never do him another kindness in
the world." Thus he caused me to be locked up with
considerable unpleasantness, especially as regards the
words spoken to me by certain of his devoted servants,
pretending that he was paying no attention, immediately
with greatest ingenuity understood it all most excellently.
And, as I have said above, that excellent man, the
Castellan, let me go freely all over the Castello; and
not even at night did he lock me in, as he did all the
others; he let me also work at every thing that I wished,
whether in gold, silver, or wax; and although I had
laboured several weeks upon a certain basin that I was
making for the Cardinal of Ferrara, finding myself incon-
venienced by my imprisonment, it became a weariness
to me to carry out that sort of work; and, for less dis-
comfort, I only worked upon certain little figures of mine
in wax; of which wax the said friar endeavoured to get
hold of a piece, and with the said piece he set in opera-
tion that experiment with the keys that I had so unwisely
shown him. He had taken as a companion and assistant
a clerk who was in the service of the said
Castellan. This clerk was called Luigi, and he was a
native of Padua. When they were desirous of having
the said keys made, the locksmith betrayed them; and
since the Castellan came several times to see me in my
chamber, and perceived that I was working with that
kind of wax, he immediately recognized the said wax,
and said: " Although to this poor man Benvenuto there
has been done one of the greatest wrongs that was ever
committed, he ought not to do such acts as these to-
wards me, for I have done for him such kindness as I
ought not to do: now I shall keep him most straitly
locked up, and will never do him another kindness in
the world." Thus he caused me to be locked up with
considerable unpleasantness, especially as regards the
words spoken to me by certain of his devoted servants,