passed my word, as well as for other reasons; He therefore thought of a
good expedient for sending me away, and spoke to me as follows: "Oh, my
dear son, the plague in this town is raging with immitigable violence,
and I am always fancying you will come home infected with it. I
remember, when I was a young man, that I went to Mantua, where I was
very kindly received, and stayed there several years. I pray and command
you, for the love of me, to pack off and go thither; and I would have
you do this to-day rather than to-morrow."

Note 1. Pier Maria di Lotto of S. Miniato was notary to the Florentine
Signoria. He collected the remnants of the Bandle Nere, and gave them
over to Orazio Baglioni, who contrived to escape from S. Angelo in
safety to Perugia.



XL

I HAD always taken pleasure in seeing the world; and having never been
in Mantua, I went there very willingly. Of the money I had brought to
Florence, I left the greater part with my good father, promising to help
him wherever I might be, and confiding him to the care of my elder
sister. Her name was Cosa; and since she never cared to marry, she was
admitted as a nun in Santa Orsola; but she put off taking the veil, in
order to keep house for our old father, and to look after my younger
sister, who was married to one Bartolommeo, a surgeon. So then, leaving
home with my father's blessing, I mounted my good horse, and rode off on
it to Mantua.

It would take too long to describe that little journey in detail. The