ifted me with a body well
suited for running and leaping far beyond the common average, and that
with the talents I possessed for manual art I felt sure I had the
courage to try flying. He then inquired what methods I should use; to
which I answered that, taking into consideration all flying creatures,
and wishing to imitate by art what they derived from nature, none was
so apt a model as the bat.

No sooner had the poor man heard the name bat, which recalled the
humor he was suffering under, than he cried out at the top of his
voice:--"He says true--he says true; the bat's the thing--the bat's
the thing!" Then he turned to me and said, "Benvenuto, if one gave you
the opportunity, should you have the heart to fly?" I said that if he
would set me at liberty, I felt quite up to flying down to Prato,
after making myself a pair of wings out of waxed linen. Thereupon he
replied:--"I too should be prepared to take flight; but since the Pope
has bidden me guard you as though you were his own eyes, and I know
you a clever devil who would certainly escape, I shall now have you
locked up with a hundred keys in order to prevent you slipping through
my fingers." I then began to implore him, and remind him that I might
have fled, but that on account of the word which I had given him I
would never have betrayed his trust; therefore I begged him for the
love of God, and by the kindness he had always shown me, not to add
greater evils to the misery of my present situation. While I was
pouring out these entreaties, he gave strict orders to have me bound
and taken and locked up in prison. On seeing that it could not be
helped, I told him before all his servants: "Lock me well up, and
keep good watch on me; for I shall certainly contrive to escape."
So they took me and confined me with the utmost care. I then began to
deliberate upon the best way of making my escape. No sooner had I been
locked in, than I went about exploring my prison; and when I thought
I had discovered how to get out of it, I pondered the means of
descending from the lofty keep, for so the great round central tower
is called. I took those new sheets of mine, which, as I have said
already, I had cut in strips and sewn together; then I reckoned up the
quantity which would be sufficient for my purpose. Having made this
estimate and put all things in order, I took out a pair of pincers
which I had abstracted from a Savoyard belonging to the guard of the
castle. This man s