What would you Have done to such a man?
BENVENUTO.
I would have killed him.
When any one insults me, if I can I kill him, kill him.
MICHAEL ANGELO.
Oh, you gentlemen, Who dress in silks and velvets, and wear swords, Are ready with your weapon; and have all A taste for homicide.
BENVENUTO.
I learned that lesson Under Pope Clement at the siege of Rome, Some twenty years ago.

As I was standing Upon the ramparts of the Campo Santo With Alessandro Bene, I beheld A sea of fog, that covered all the plain, And hid from us the foe; when suddenly, A misty figure, like an apparition, Rose up above the fog, as if on horseback.
At this I aimed my arquebus, and fired.
The figure vanished; and there rose a cry Out of the darkness, long and fierce and loud, With imprecations in all languages.
It was the Constable of France, the Bourbon, That I had slain.
MICHAEL ANGELO.
Rome should be grateful to you.
BENVENUTO.
But has not been; you shall hear presently.
During the siege I served as bombardier, There in St.Angelo.

His Holiness, One day, was walking with his Cardinals On the round bastion, while I stood above Among my falconets.

All thought and feeling, All skill in art and all desire of fame, Were swallowed up in the delightful music Of that artillery.

I saw far off, Within the enemy's trenches on the Prati, A Spanish cavalier in scarlet cloak; And firing at him with due aim and range, I cut the gay Hidalgo in two pieces.
The eyes are dry that wept for him in Spain.
His Holiness, delighted beyond measure With such display of gunnery, and amazed To see the man in scarlet cut in two, Gave me his benediction, and absolved me From all the homicides I had committed In service of the Apostolic Church, Or should commit thereafter.