e. I had confided what I was
doing about them to him alone, begging him to keep my secret. At the
same time I never stopped asking him if he believed that I should be
reunited to my Sicilian Angelica at the time appointed; for the date
was drawing near, and I thought it singular that I heard nothing about
her. The necromancer told me that it was quite certain I should find
myself where she was, since the devils never break their word when
they promise, as they did on that occasion; but he bade me keep my
eyes open and be on the lookout against some accident which might
happen to me in that connection, and put restraint upon myself to
endure somewhat against my inclination, for he could discern a great
and imminent danger in it: well would it be for me if I went with him
to consecrate the book, since this would avert the peril that menaced
me and would make us both most fortunate.

I was beginning to hanker after the adventure more than he did; but I
said that a certain Maestro Giovanni of Castel Bolognese had just come
to Rome, very ingenious in the art of making medals of the sort I made
in steel, and that I thirsted for nothing more than to compete with
him and take the world by storm with some great masterpiece, which I
hoped would annihilate all those enemies of mine by the force of
genius and not the sword. The sorcerer on his side went on urging,
"Nay, prithee, Benvenuto, come with me and shun a great disaster which
I see impending over you." However, I had made my mind up, come what
would, to finish my medal, and we were now approaching the end of the
month. I was so absorbed and enamored by my work that I thought no
more about Angelica or anything of that kind, but gave my whole self
up to it.

BENVENUTO LOSES SELF-CONTROL UNDER SEVERE PROVOCATION

From the 'Memoirs': Symonds's Translation

It happened one day, close on the hours of vespers, that I had to go,
at an unusual time for me, from my house to my workshop; for I ought
to say that the latter was in the Banchi, while I lived behind the
Banchi, and went rarely to the shop; all my business there I left in
the hands of my partner, Felice. Having stayed a short while in the
workshop, I remembered that I had to say something to Alessandro del
Bene. So I arose, and when I reached the Banchi, I met a man called
Ser Benedetto, who was a great friend of mine. He was a notary, born
in Florence, son of a blind man who said prayers about the streets for
al