Finally he reminded the Court that he had appealed to the Pope, who had
issued a brief commanding me, under pain of excommunication and death, to
make surrender; that I had flouted the Pontifical authority, and that it
was only upon his appeal to Caesar and upon the Imperial mandate that I had
surrendered. Wherefore he begged the Court to uphold the Holy Father's
authority, and forthwith to pronounce me excommunicate and my life forfeit,
restoring to him his wife Bianca and his domain of Pagliano, which be would
hold as the Emperor's liege and loyal servitor.
Having spoken thus, he bowed to the Court, stepped back, and sat down.
The Ten looked at Gonzaga. Gonzaga looked at me.
"Have you anything to say?" he asked.
I rose imbued by a calm that surprised me.
"Messer Cosimo has left something out of his narrative," said I. "When he
says that I violently invested his palace here in Piacenza on the night of
his marriage, and dragged thence the Lady Bianca, others abetting me, he
would do well to add in the interests of justice, the names of those who
were my abettors."
Cosimo rose again. "Does it matter to this Court and to the affair at
issue what caitiffs he employed?" he asked haughtily.
"If they were caitiffs it would not matter," said I. "But they were not.
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