same town, who was jointly apprehended with the King for lodging in his house, and was not delivered until five hours after the King was set at liberty. Jeronimo took the ring, and brought it secretly to the King, lodging privily in his house. As soon as the King beheld the ring, he said, This ring is none of mine, but belongs to Don Antonio, my cousin. This relation I had from Jeronimo himself, at Venice, in the presence of many witnesses, and how the goldsmith happened to get this ring. In Moran, an island some half league from Venice, there is an Abbot called Capelo, a gentleman of Venice, a grave personage, and of great authority, hearing that the King laid wait for certain jewels that he had lost, hoping thereby to recover some of them, having a diamond in his keeping, with the arms of Portugal, came to the town to the conventicles of St. Francis, called Frari, where the King lay concealed, for that he was pursued by some that meaned him no good; who no sooner beheld the ring, but he said, verily this is mine; and I either lost the same in Flanders, or else it was stolen from me. And, when the King had put it upon his finger, it appeared otherwise engraven than before. The abbot enquiring of him that brought him the ring, how he came by it? He answered, it is true that the King hath said. There hence arose a strange rumour of a ring, that, by turning the stone, you might discern three great letters engraven, S. R. P. that is as much to say, Sebastianus Rex Portugallia. Ignorant people, not conceiving aright of the thing, raised thereupon such rumours, as their own imaginations could gather; and at all times, so often as the abbot shewed the ring to the King, he had many witnesses to testify the same. I sojourned three weeks in the same isle, very near the abbot's house, after this had passed. To the second point: although the King was lean and weak, by reason of his travel and troubles, as it is like he could not be so strong and puissant as he was when he reigned in Portugal, being there full-fed and corpulent; yet in Padua, in the house of Don Prospero Baracco, he was seen to lift up two men at once with great facility, one of which was called Pasquino Morosini, the other Bernardino Santi; both these together, putting his arm between their legs, he heaved from the ground, without straining or wrenching, in the view of many, He did the like in the isle of Moran to two others, the one called Jeronimo Calegari, the other Pasquilino Calegari, and there was present the archbishop of Spalato, at the like performance of his puissance, with other men of quality; and this Pasquilino was a man both tall and corpulent. A Venetian gentleman, of the house wherein the King was prisoner, oftentimes took occasion to scoff at the King, saying, it was impossible he should be the person he reported himself to be, with other jearing frumps; whereto the King said earnestly, Sir, I pray you tell me the reason of your incredulity, and whereupon it is grounded; and Moliner answered, because I have heard it often reported, that the King, Don Sebastian, was a lusty strong man, of power to pull a horse-shoe in sunder with his hands, and able to tire six horses in an hour; and you are but a spare, poor, meager shrimp, and a gristle in respect of such a one, and scarcely able to tear four cards asunder, if they be well joined together, nor like to tire one horse in an hour. Well, said the King, if force will prove me to be Don Sebastian, &c. and the matter rest only upon that, it may be, that one day I may satisfy you in that point. So long this gallant continued in his former jearing and railing, that, one day above the rest, he moved the King's patience, and made him angry, and constrained him to shew him by the force of his hands, that he was Don Sebastian, &c. and made him confess the same; for, being in a rage, he came upon him directly, and took him by the girdle with his right-hand, and, heaving him higher than his head, carried him round about the prison in that manner, to the great admiration of all that beheld it; and this gentleman, never after, durst abuse him any more, but used him with the honour and reverence that was due unto him. In like manner, he took up in the same prison, by the girdle, one Gasparo Turloni, a gentleman of Venice, with his right-hand, and Baptista Marsoto with his left-hand, and lifted them both up from the ground at one time. He also, in the same prison, took up, putting his arm between their legs, two other gentlemen, one very gross and corpulent, namely Messier Lucio de Messine, and Alexander de Alexandria, and lifted them of a good height; the opportunity of this gentleman made him do it in prison; and at Padua, and at Moran, he was disposed to shew his force, to pleasure his friends thereby. That, which was spoken before of the ring, and of his forces, were the two things I thought necessary first to give you notice of. To add to the two first two others; In Venice there is a rich and an honorable merchant, who, hearing of this King, what marks and tokens he had on his body, and what he had said and done, took occasion to go to him, and made means to deserve his love and amity, by the performance of many kind offices towards him. This merchant was a Piedmontese by nation, by name called Monsieur John Bassanesse, and his mother, being a widow, married after to one Bartholomæo Verneti, a Piedmontese born also, who often used to check and reprove his son-in-law for going so much to the King, saying, he was an impostor and a counterfeit; and his son-in-law boldly defended the King, by all the means and reasons he could devise.. During this contention betwixt the father and the son-in-law, the old man said, come hither, hear me: Emanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy,' sent an ambassador to Don Sebastian, King of Portugal, his nephew, son to his cousin german, which ambassador brought him a present, and returned back again from the said King with an answer, and another present from the King to the duke; the ambassador's name was Dominico Belli, whose servant I was at that very instant, by means whereof I saw, and was privy to all the parcels, and placed them myself in the casket, and likewise saw advisedly what was returned from the King. Now, sir, if you can persuade that man, that says is Don Sebastian, &c. to tell me what parcels those were, that were sent to and fro, directly, you shall bring me to be of your mind, and to confess, that he is the very same man he nominates himself to be. John Bassanesse hearing these words, bethought himself which way he might come to have conference with the King, to understand the right of this matter; and, as he was studying how to bring his purpose he about, he dreamed of a stratagem, which should effect his design, which was, that he would perpetrate some light crime,in hope therefore to be committed to the prison, where the King was: whereupon he resolved to take a cudgel under his cloke, and go to the Realto, the chicfest place in Venice, and there quarrel with one or other, and bastinado him, until he had drawn blood of him, for which act he doubted not but to be committed: he proceeded according to his secret determination, and, when he was come near the Realto, he met with a friend of his, who perceiving by his countenance, that he was troubled in mind, said unto him, Sir, I see by you there is somewhat amiss. John Bassanesse being well assured, that he was a faithful servant to the King, laid open his intention unto him, who found means to get a note, in writing, under the King's hand, of all the parcels, that passed from the one to the other. This memorandum was put into the hands of one Leonardo Donato, one of the Sabio Grande, that first examined the King, and was thought to owe him little goodwill; but, after he surveyed his cause, and found it so just and true, travelled earnestly to the senate, to pronounce him Don Sebastian, the true King of Portugal, All this I have heard confirmed by many very worthy persons: The original I could not bring with me, for that Donato, at my being there, was employed as general of five and twentythousand foot, and five thousand horse, in the county of Bresse, which force, the seigniory had levied the year before, for their defence, upon some intelligence, &c. But, as soon as John Bassanesse had got the writing, he hied him home to his father-in-law, and they agreed between them, that one should stand at one end of the table, and the other below, and the father wrote the pieces he knew, and the son, by his note, was able to inform the old man of divers parcels that he had forgotten; and the old man said, it was haste made him overslip somewhat; those four white horses, said he, I did not well remember, but I think verily it was true; and the old man wondered not a little, how his son came by this intelligence, and said, he had devised it himself; but, seeing himself vanquished, said to his son, Visit the King, my son, at your pleasure, and do him what good you may, and I beseech God to assist him. Forasmuch as I know the curious sort of people desire to view the particulars, and to make our proof the more authentical, I have here set them down in order, as they were inventoried. The Parcels presented by the Duke to the King. A case full of silks, of divers colours. Another, full of cloth of silver, of divers sorts and colours. A dimond set in a ring, An ancient garment, of very great value, being a trophy, taken from the French at St. Quintain's, embroidered and garnished about the neck with many jewels; four white horses, which the old man had forgotten, and divers other pieces not named. Those parcels that were sent from the King to the Duke. A great chain of gold of very good value, two peutrils, two bits, two pair of stirrups, all garnished with diamonds, rubies, and other stones of great price. One diamond set in gold, which Bartholomæo Verneti said was as big as the nail of his right-thumb. Many East-Indian dishes, of sundry colours, with other rich things of good esteem. For the second of the last proofs, being the fourth and last, you shall understand that there be four merchants at Venice, men endued with wealth, honour, estimation, and charity, that in my hearing have named these four witnesses Barnaba Rizzo, Jean Bassanesse, Constantine Nicoli, who keeps in his hand the original letter of don Raimond Marqueti, by which it is manifest that Don Sebastian is one man, and Marco Tullio Catizzone another: which letter he shewed publickly at St. Mark's, to convince the falshood of the Castilians, and their adhe rents: For the which and such other like services, the Spaniards could not be appeased without revenge. The nineteenth of October, I had intelligence by letters, that one came into this honest man's shop, his servants being all sent out of the way, and cut him on the head with a cutlass, and in divers other places so dangerously, that he was in great peril of his life. The malefactor escaped unknown. The fourth and last is called Baptista Dolphin, and these four have been good friends to the King, both by entertaining him and travelling in his affairs, to the uttermost of their power, to set him at liberty, without intermission of any minute of opportunity, that might be spent in his profitable service. But the Castilian agents, considering and knowing the zeal of these personages, and observing their constancy, that, both with all their might and main, defended the cause of the King my master: seeing that neither fair promises, persuasions, nor threatenings, could make them desist from their vowed fidelity and assistance, entered into this devilish practice. First they began to publish these witnesses to be fools, couseners, and rogues, and persuaded certain bankers and brokers to lay wagers with them, that the prisoner was not Don Sebastian the King assuring them that they might offer to give a thousand for one, if ever it were proved or published; for that they knew assuredly, that he was a Calabrian, a sodomite, a thief, a cousener, and a counterfeit, and that 'ere long they should see him hanged upon one of the pillars of St. Mark's church. These usurers believing this to be true, and desirous to make gain of any thing, began to enter into the course of laying wagers, as the Castilians had advised them. The witneseses hearing they offered so frankly a thousand to one, if the prisoner were judged to be Don Sebastian, &c. knowing certainly that it was he (believing that the senate, in regard of such especial marks, tokens, and proofs, would not refuse to publish him, what they had found him) were easily drawn to bargain with these bankers, to some of the which, the simple and honest men gave out twenty, some thirty, some fifty, some ten, some five crowns, in hopes to be paid a thousand for one: So that they had given out some three-hundred crowns or more; and, shortly after they found out the wrong and hinderance they had done to the poor King's cause, by their money, they began to repent themselves exceedingly of their folly: The account was cast, that the repayment would amount to three-hundred thousand crowns. And the baukers seeing themselves engaged for so great a sum of money; and if the senate should chance to publish that which they knew to be true, that they were like to be stripped of the greatest part of their substance, began to complot and oppose themselves to countercheck the truth, which fell out to be a great prejudice and bar to the King my master's cause; for that many chief men, and the factors of many principal houses, were interested in this hazard of indemnity: As those of the house of Astroci, Caponi, Baglioni, Labia, Jacobo Begia, Antonio Simone, Pietro Tobon, Bastian Garinoni, and many others of their parents and allies, for their sakes; among which were divers that bare offices in the commonwealth, as Jacobo Fescurini a proctor in St. Mark, that was ever an enemy to the King my master. In the end this devilish invention, and Castilian pernicious policy, wrought us much woe, and multiplied our enemies infinitely: For it was so commonly known and spoken, that little children, as they went for mustard, could say, that this was the principal cause why the senators would have had Don Sebastian say, he was not Don Sebastain but a Calabrian, and they promised straight to set him at liberty; and not that favour alone, but they would do what else for him, he could or would require. Whereupon he wrote a letter to the Pope, complaining justly upon the senators of Venice, for requiring at his hands so unlawful a thing, to whom he declared in his letter, that he answered them, that he had rather die a tortured death, than confess so palpable an untruth, to gain an ignominious life and liberty. O that it were possible for me to 'speak all that is true in this case! But I must let pass infinite injuries, lest the revealing all might rather aggravate than relieve my master's miseries. If I durst, this discourse should have been more ample, and better understood; if it were lawful that I might say what I could say, that the monarchs and princes of Christendom have done the King my lord secretly and openly much good and ill, and are unwilling either of both should be manifested to the world in writing. Notwithstanding I will never bury in silence an answer that a grand Sabio of this commonwealth made to a magnificent prince in Europe, of great understanding, but of no great antiquity. This Sabio, going to visit this prince, was intreated by him to tell him what ground the seigniory of Venice had, to proceed upon the prisoner in that form, which called himself Don Sebastian King of Portugal? for (said he) if they found him to be a Calabrian, why did they set him at liberty without chastisement? And if it were verified unto them by good proofs and evidences that he was Don Sebastian King of Portugal, why did they use him in that manner? The grand Sabio publickly made this answer in the presence of many. Sir, forasmuch as the affairs concerned the estate of Spain, the seigniory would not presume to judge whether it was he or not. This man was committed for disobeying a command |