And I affirm to your Excellency that even his Holiness annoys and wearies
me when at times he talks to me and asks me somewhat roughly why do I not
come to see him, for I believe that I serve him better in not going when
he asks me, little needing me, when I wish to work for him in my house;
and I tell him that, as M. Angelo, I serve him more thus than by standing
before him all day, as others do,"
"Oh, happy M. Angelo," said I at this stage, "my prince is not a Pope, can
he forgive me such a sin?"
"Such sins, M. Francisco, are just those which kings pardon," said he, and
added: "Sometimes, I may tell you, my important duties have given me so
much licence that when, as I am talking to the Pope, I put this old felt
hat non-chalantly on my head, and talk to him very frankly, but even for
that he does not kill me; on the contrary, he has given me a
livelihood.(187) And as I say, I have paid him more compliments in his
service than unnecessary ones to his person. If perchance a man were so
blind as to invent such an unprofitable exchange, as it is for a man to
separate himself and content himself with himself whilst he loses his
friends and makes enemies of all, would it not be very wrong if they bore
him ill-will for that? But whoever has such a complexion both because the
force of his duty demands it, and because of his having been born with a
dislike of ceremony and dissimulation, it seems very foolish not to allow
him to live. And if such a man is so moderate that he does not want
anything of you, what do you want with him? And why should you wish to use
him in those vanities for which his quietness is not fitted? Do you not
know that there are sciences that require the whole man without ever
leaving him free for your idle trivialities? When he has as little to do
as you have, let him be killed if he does not observe your rules of
etiquette and compliment even better than you.
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