Page:The Life of Benvenuto Cellini Vol 1.djvu/84

Rh, and obliged him to give up three pieces of silver plate and some bullion on the King's account. Cellini asserts that he intended to deposit these valuables at Lyons in an abbey of his old patron the Cardinal of Ferrara, before he left the country. He argues with much show of reason that it would have been impossible to convey a whole mule-load of precious metal out of France under the then strict laws regarding exportation. There were further circumstances connected with the King's health at that period which made him unwilling to abandon so much property in Paris under the charge of two Italian workmen. Francis, in the year 1545, was already sinking into premature decrepitude, and his life could not be reckoned on. Cellini's story is therefore plausible and intelligible enough. We know, besides, that he subsequently lost all the effects which he left behind at Paris; nor have we any reason to doubt that Francis was satisfied with the lengthy statement which he transmitted from Florence. Yet the narrative of his departure has exposed him to a charge of peculation or of seriously involved accounts in his transactions with the King. I am not aware that sinister light has been thrown upon this matter from French archives. On the contrary, we know that Francis, who sincerely liked him, wanted Cellini to return. What is more, we possess a letter written by Duke Cosimo to Caterina de' Medici in 1547, the year of her husband's accession to the French throne, recommending Benvenuto to his royal cousin, and expressly setting forth