thus the vow he registered so heartily to Heaven. Even so may it be seen
that God keeps account of the good and the bad, and gives to each one
what he merits.

Note 1. The Porta Castello was the gate called after the Castle of S.
Angelo. Prati, so far as I can make out, was an open space between the
Borgo and the Bridge of S. Angelo. In order to get inside Rome itself,
Cellini had to pass a second gate. His own lodging and Pantasilea's
house were in the quarter of the Bianchi, where are now the Via Giulia
and Via de' Banchi Vecchi.



XXXIV

THE WHOLE world was now in warfare. [1] Pope Clement had sent to get
some troops from Giovanni de' Medici, and when they came, they made such
disturbances in Rome, that it was ill living in open shops. [2] On this
account I retired to a good snug house behind the Banchi, where I worked
for all the friends I had acquired. Since I produced few things of much
importance at that period, I need not waste time in talking about them.
I took much pleasure in music and amusements of the kind. On the death
of Giovanni de' Medici in Lombardy, the Pope, at the advice of Messer
Jacopo Salviati, dismissed the five bands he had engaged; and when the
Constable of Bourbon knew there were no troops in Rome, he pushed his
army with the utmost energy up to the city. The whole of Rome upon this
flew to arms. I happened to be intimate with Alessandro, the son of
Piero del Bene, who, at the time when the Colonnesi entered Rome, had
requested me to guard his palace. [3] On this more serious occasion,
therefore, he prayed me to enlist fifty comrades for the protection of