being closed, Signor Orazio concluded that a band of soldiers were
carousing at table just between them and behind the sun. So he said to
me "Benvenuto, if you think that you could hit that wall an ell's
breadth from the sun with your demi-cannon here, I believe you would be
doing a good stroke of business, for there is a great commotion there,
and men of much importance must probably be inside the house." I
answered that I felt quite capable of hitting the sun in its centre, but
that a barrel full of stones, which was standing close to the muzzle of
the gun, might be knocked down by the shock of the discharge and the
blast of the artillery. He rejoined: "Don't waste time, Benvenuto. In
the first place, it is not possible, where it is standing, that the
cannon's blast should bring it down; and even if it were to fall, and
the Pope himself was underneath, the mischief would not be so great as
you imagine. Fire, then, only fire!" Taking no more thought about it, I
struck the sun in the centre, exactly as I said I should. The cask was
dislodged, as I predicted, and fell precisely between Cardinal Farnese
and Messer Jacopo Salviati. [2] It might very well have dashed out the
brains of both of them, except that just at that very moment Farnese was
reproaching Salviati with having caused the sack of Rome, and while they
stood apart from one another to exchange opprobrious remarks, my gabion
fell without destroying them. When he heard the uproar in the court
below, good Signor Orazio dashed off in a hurry; and I, thrusting my
neck forward where the cask had fallen, heard some people saying; "It
would not be a bad job to kill that gunner!" Upon this I turned two
falconets toward the staircase, with mind resolved to let blaze on the
first man who attempted to come up. The household of Cardinal Farnese
must have received orders to go and do me some injury; accordingly I
prepared to receive them, with a lighted match in hand. Recognising some
who were approaching, I called out: "You lazy lubbers, if you don't pack
off from there, and if but a man's child among you dares to touch the