ice of the Church. The Pope, lifting
up his hands and making the Sign of the Cross over me, blessed me, and
gave his absolution for all the homicides I had ever committed, or ever
should commit, in the service of the Apostolic Church. After that I kept
up a constant fire, and scarcely once missed all the time. Later, Pope
Clement sent for me to a private apartment, and with his master of the
horse placed before me his regalia, with all the vast quantity of jewels
belonging to the apostolical chamber. I was ordered to take off the gold
in which they were set. I did as directed, and, wrapping up each jewel
in a little piece of paper, we sewed them in the skirts of the Pope's
clothes, and those of the master of the horse. The gold, which amounted
to about a hundred pounds' weight, I was ordered to melt with the utmost
secrecy, which I did, and carried to his holiness without being observed
by anyone.

A few days after, a treaty was concluded with the Imperialists, and
hostilities ceased. Worn out with my exertions during the siege, I
returned to Florence and thence to Mantua, where, on the introduction of
the excellent painter, Giulio Romano, I executed many commissions for
the duke, including a shrine in gold in which to place the relic of the
Blood of Christ, which the Mantuans boast themselves to be possessed of,
and a pontifical seal for the duke's brother, the bishop. An attack of
fever and a quarrel with the duke induced me to return to Florence, to
find that my father and all belonging to my family, except my youngest
sister and brother, were dead of the plague. I opened a shop in the New
Market, and engraved many medals, which received the highest praise from
the divine Michael Angelo.

On the invitation of Pope Clement VII. I retired from Florence, and
repaired to Rome. His holiness commissioned me to execute a button for
the pontifical cope, and to set into it the jewels which I had taken out
of the two crowns in the Castle of St. Angelo. The design was most
beautiful, and so pleased and astonished was the Pope that he employed
me to make new coinage, and appointed me stamp-master of the mint. My
gold coins were pronounced by the Pope's secretary to be superior to
those of the Roman emperors. When I finished my great work upon the
pontifical button it was looked upon as the most exquisite performance
of the kind that had ever been seen in Rome The Pope, I thought, would
never tire of praising it, and he appointe