om another quarter, that
is, from the garden, the sky poured in so much rain and wind that it
cooled my furnace.

Thus did I continue to struggle with these cross accidents for several
hours, and exerted myself to such a degree that my constitution, tho
robust, could no longer bear such severe hardship, and I was suddenly
attacked by a most violent intermitting fever: in short, I was so ill
that I found myself under a necessity of lying down upon my bed....

My housekeeper, whose name was Mona Fiora da Castel del Rio, was one
of the most sensible and affectionate women in the world: she rebuked
me for giving way to vain fears, and at the same time attended me with
the greatest kindness and care imaginable; however, seeing me so very
ill, and terrified to such a degree, she could not contain herself,
but shed a flood of tears, which she endeavored to conceal from me.
While we were both in this deep affliction, I perceived a man enter
the room, who in his person appeared to be as crooked and distorted as
great S, and began to express himself in these terms, with a tone of
voice as dismal and melancholy as those who exhort and pray with
persons who are going to be executed: "Alas! poor Benvenuto, your work
is spoiled, and the misfortune admits of no remedy."

No sooner had I heard the words uttered by this messenger of evil but
I cried out so loud that my voice might be heard to the skies, and got
out of bed. I began immediately to dress, and, giving plenty of kicks
and cuffs to the maidservants and the boy as they offered to help me
on with my clothes, I complained bitterly in these terms: "O you
envious and treacherous wretches, this is a piece of villainy
contrived on purpose; but I swear by the living God that I will sift
it to the bottom, and, before I die, give such proofs who I am as
shall not fail to astonish the whole world." Having huddled on my
clothes, I went, with a mind boding evil, to the shop, where I found
all those whom I had left so alert, and in such high spirits,
standing in the utmost confusion and astonishment. I thereupon addrest
them thus: "Listen, all of you, to what I am going to say; and since
you either would not or could not follow the method I pointed out,
obey me now that I am present: my work is before us, and let none of
you offer to oppose or contradict me, for such cases as this require
activity, and not counsel." Hereupon one Alessandro Lastricati had the
assurance to say to me, "Loo