While passing some open portions of the gallery, he threw his violent
mantle and cap of a Monsignore over the white stole of the Pontiff, for
fear he might be shot at by the soldiers in the streets below.

Note 7. The short autobiography of Raffaello da Montelupo, a man in many
respects resembling Cellini, confirms this part of our author's
narrative. It is one of the most interesting pieces of evidence
regarding what went on inside the castle during the sack of Rome.
Montelupo was also a gunner, and commanded two pieces.

Note 8. This is an instance of Cellini's exaggeration. He did more than
yeoman's service, no doubt. But we cannot believe that, without him, the
castle would have been taken.



XXXV

DURING the course of my artillery practice, which I never intermitted
through the whole month passed by us beleaguered in the castle, I met
with a great many very striking accidents, all of them worthy to be
related. But since I do not care to be too prolix, or to exhibit myself
outside the sphere of my profession, I will omit the larger part of
them, only touching upon those I cannot well neglect, which shall be the
fewest in number and the most remarkable. The first which comes to hand
is this: Messer Antonio Santacroce had made me come down from the Angel,
in order to fire on some houses in the neighbourhood, where certain of
our besiegers had been seen to enter. While I was firing, a cannon shot
reached me, which hit the angle of a battlement, and carried off enough
of it to be the cause why I sustained no injury. The whole mass struck