“‘“My lords, I had for the duchess the tenderness 70of a father for a beloved daughter, and thinking that I would give her pleasure, when she should come again to redeem her jewels, I hired Giovanni da Sestos, the goldsmith, whose renown as an artist you all know, to make a casket for the gems that should be as beautiful as the very gems themselves.

70

“‘“It was to be so small that it could be carried about. Yet it was to be so strong that the most skilful thief would be baffled to break it open. For when it was once closed, certain springs ingeniously contrived by clockwork made it impossible even for the man who possessed the casket to open it till a day of twelve hours should have passed.

“‘“I had made promise to Messer Giovanni that he should receive three payments for his task. Two payments I made to him; one, when he undertook the work; another, that he might buy the gems with which the cover was to be richly adorned. The third payment I promised to make when the casket should be given into my hands.

“‘“But hardly had Giovanni finished his task when Beatrice died. And, my lords of the Signory, knowing now that the jewels could never be redeemed, seeing that Ludovico is in prison and his wife dead, I vowed that I would now 71pawn them to Albani the Jew, that I might at last help the state in her need.

71

“‘“But when Giovanni wrote to me to say that the casket, which he had at last completed, was more beautiful than anything like it since the beginning of the world, I longed greatly to see the jewels in the glorious box before they should be out of my possession forever. And now see how the heavy hand of God hath punished me for my weakness.

“‘“For I had written to Giovanni to bring to me the casket alone and at night. (For I did not wish that any should know that I possessed the gems till I had pawned them and until the money should be paid into the treasury of the state.) I bade him come at the hour of twelve to my bed-chamber. I told him I should receive him alone. I would let him in by a secret stairway.

“‘“And so, when all Venice slept, I admitted him to my room, where there was none other than myself, except the guard.

“‘“My lords of the Signory, never did I dream of anything so rare and beautiful as that casket. It seemed to me that I should die for very desire of it. And at last I thought of a cunning plan. 

 Prev. P 39/162 next