mind, making me often weep
bitter tears of repentance for having left France; for though I did so
only to revisit Florence, my sweet birthplace, in order that I might
charitably succor my six nieces, this good action, as I well
perceived, had been the beginning of my great misfortune. Nevertheless
I felt convinced that when my Perseus was accomplished, all these
trials would be turned to high felicity and glorious well-being.

Accordingly I strengthened my heart, and with all the forces of my
body and my purse, employing what little money still remained to me, I
set to work. First I provided myself with several loads of pine-wood
from the forests of Serristori, in the neighborhood of Montelupo.
While these were on their way, I clothed my Perseus with the clay
which I had prepared many months beforehand, in order that it might be
duly seasoned. After making its clay tunic (for that is the term used
in this art) and properly arming it and fencing it with iron girders,
I began to draw the wax out by means of a slow fire. This melted and
issued through numerous air-vents I had made; for the more there are
of these the better will the mold fill. When I had finished drawing
off the wax, I constructed a funnel-shaped furnace all round the model
of my Perseus. It was built of bricks, so interlaced, the one above
the other, that numerous apertures were left for the fire to exhale
it. Then I began to lay on wood by degrees, and kept it burning two
whole days and nights.

At length when all the wax was gone and the mold was well baked, I set
to work at digging the pit in which to sink it. This I performed with
scrupulous regard to all the rules of art. When I had finished that
part of my work, I raised the mold by windlasses and stout ropes to a
perpendicular position, and suspending it with the greatest care one
cubit above the level of the furnace, so that it hung exactly above
the middle of the pit. I next lowered it gently down into the very
bottom of the furnace, and had it firmly placed with every possible
precaution for its safety. When this delicate operation was
accomplished, I began to bank it up with the earth I had excavated;
and ever as the earth grew higher I introduced its proper air-vents,
which were little tubes of earthenware, such as folks use for drains
and suchlike purposes. At length I felt sure that it was admirably
fixed, and that the filling in of the pit and the placing of the
air-vents had been properl