, seeing
that at the beginning of the sack he was so intent on his work, that,
when the soldiers were entering the houses, and some Germans were
already in his, he did not move from his painting for all the uproar
that they were making; but when they came upon him and saw him working,
they were so struck with astonishment at the work, that, like the
gentlemen that they must have been, they let him go on. And thus, while
the impious cruelty of those barbarous hordes was ruining the unhappy
city and all its treasures, both sacred and profane, without showing
respect to either God or man, Francesco was provided for and greatly
honoured by those Germans, and protected from all injury. All the
hardship that he suffered at that time was this, that he was forced, one
of them being a great lover of painting, to make a vast number of
drawings in water-colours and with the pen, which formed the payment of
his ransom. But afterwards, when these soldiers changed their quarters,
Francesco nearly came to an evil end, because, going to look for some
friends, he was made prisoner by other soldiers and compelled to pay as
ransom some few crowns that he possessed. Wherefore his uncle, grieved
by that and by the fact that this disaster had robbed Francesco of his
hopes of acquiring knowledge, honour, and profit, and seeing Rome almost
wholly in ruins and the Pope the prisoner of the Spaniards, determined
to take him back to Parma. And so he set Francesco on his way to his
native city, but himself remained for some days in Rome, where he
deposited the panel-picture painted for Madonna Maria Bufolini with the
Friars of the Pace, in whose refectory it remained for many years,
until finally it was taken by Messer Giulio Bufolini to the church of
his family in Citta di Castello.

Having arrived in Bologna, and finding entertainment with many friends,
and particularly in the house of his most intimate friend, a saddler of
Parma, Francesco stayed some months in that city, where the life pleased
him, during which time he had some works engraved and printed in
chiaroscuro, among others the Beheading of S. Peter and S. Paul, and a
large figure of Diogenes. He also prepared many others, in order to have
them engraved on copper and printed, having with him for this purpose
one Maestro Antonio da Trento; but he did not carry this intention into
effect at the time, because he was forced to set his hand to executing
many pictures and other works for gen