charge of fine powder mixed with the coarser sort; then I aimed it
exactly at the man in red, elevating prodigiously, because a piece of
that calibre could hardly be expected to carry true at such a distance.
I fired, and hit my man exactly in the middle. He had trussed his sword
in front, [2] for swagger, after a way those Spaniards have; and my
ball, when it struck him, broke upon the blade, and one could see the
fellow cut in two fair halves. The Pope, who was expecting nothing of
this kind, derived great pleasure and amazement from the sight, both
because it seemed to him impossible that one should aim and hit the mark
at such a distance, and also because the man was cut in two, and he
could not comprehend how this should happen. He sent for me, and asked
about it. I explained all the devices I had used in firing; but told him
that why the man was cut in halves, neither he nor I could know. Upon my
bended knees I then besought him to give me the pardon of his blessing
for that homicide; and for all the others I had committed in the castle
in the service of the Church. Thereat the Pope, raising his hand, and
making a large open sign of the cross upon my face, told me that he
blessed me, and that he gave me pardon for all murders I had ever
perpetrated, or should ever perpetrate, in the service of the Apostolic
Church. When I felt him, I went aloft, and never stayed from firing to
the utmost of my power; and few were the shots of mine that missed their
mark. My drawing, and my fine studies in my craft, and my charming art
of music, all were swallowed up in the din of that artillery; and if I
were to relate in detail all the splendid things I did in that infernal
work of cruelty, I should make the world stand by and wonder. But, not
to be too prolix, I will pass them over. Only I must tell a few of the
most remarkable, which are, as it were, forced in upon me.

To begin then: pondering day and night what I could render for my own
part in defence of Holy Church, and having noticed that the enemy