Up to this moment the banker, not having dared to interrupt me, although in the fury that possessed him he could with difficulty restrain, had contented himself by raising his hands and eyes towards Heaven to witness my imposture: but his patience now entirely forsook him, and he could hold out no longer. “You see before you,” cried he, “one of the most bare-faced liars on the face of the earth. Should there be found in my house a casket such as that he mentions, I shall be content to forfeit my life and every thing I possess in the world.” “And if what I have told you be not true,” cried I, in my turn, “I will consent that the banker enjoy my property in peace, and that my ears be cut off like a traitor and audacious thief who dares demand what does not belong to him. It is a very easy matter,” continued I, “to discover the truth. Nothing remains but to open the strong box, where you will find my casket and bag, with the accounts which will inform you that the money belongs to me. Give orders, Signor Bargello, give orders immediately, I beseech you, that this old rogue show you his account books, where you will see what he himself wrote the day he received the money.” “You are right,” replied the Bargello, “and further conversation would be superfluous. Come, Signor Plati, if this gentleman gave you the specie, there will of course be an entry in your books.” “Undoubtedly,” answered the banker; “but I have no fear of your finding it, and if there should be any mention made of twelve thousand franks which this stranger assures you he entrusted to me, I will confess that he tells the truth, and that I am the impostor.” At the same time he told his clerk to reach him down the large account book out of his press. Aguilera had no sooner handed this to him, than I cried out: “No, no, thou knave! this is not the book that will bear witness against thee, it was a smaller but longer one.” Aguilera then said to his master, “He must surely mean our journal.” “Let it be the journal then,” replied the banker; “bring forward all the books in the house.” Aguilera then produced the journal, and asked me if that was the one I meant. I replied that it was. The Bargello immediately began to look it over, and finding in it what our colleague had written by my order, he read the following words in a loud voice:
“This day, the 13th of February 1586, Don Juan Osorio remitted me nine hundred and sixty pistoles in gold coin, Spanish and Italian, and ten quadruples, which make together the sum of one thousand pistoles, and which will be found in my strong box in a gilt casket. Moreover, I received from the said Don Juan the same day, a bag tied with red ribbon, in which are three hundred and thirty crowns, thirty of which are Roman.”
The company had no sooner heard this entry read than they all began to murmur against Signor Plati, thus giving me a decided advantage over him. Fortunately also for me, the banker did not pass in the town for an over-scrupulous man; so that every one readily believed the possibility of his having played me the roguish trick of which I accused him. The Bargello made him read these words, and asked him if he had not written them. The citizen, confounded by so extraordinary a circumstance, answered in an agitation which almost deprived him of the power of speech, “that he had written the first words, but not the remainder.” “How so,” replied the officer of justice, “it appears to be all in the same hand-writing.” “I cannot deny that,” rejoined the banker, “but, nevertheless it is not all my writing.” “It will avail you nothing to deny it in this manner,” said the Bargello; “you must prove its falsity.”
A fresh scene now contributed to convince the standers-by that I had not complained without cause. A voice of thunder resounded through the house, and a man with his kitchen apron and a large carving knife at his side made his appearance. This was mine host, whom Sayavedra had been in search of, and who, hearing that the banker denied having received the money, was furiously exasperated against him. “Why,” cried he as he entered, “do they not hang this arch Jew? Why not fire his house, and burn him with all his race?” Then perceiving the officer of justice, “can you allow,” said he, in a respectful and more moderate tone, “that a cavalier should be robbed, ruined, and struck, with impunity, for having trusted his property to a thief. This good gentleman lodges at my house, and I most solemnly assure you, that I have seen and handled the casket, as well as the bag which he has unfortunately confided to this banker, who is already but too well known at Milan for what he really is.”
Signor Plati, thunderstruck as he was, said what he could in his own defence; but his feeble voice, which was scarcely audible at two paces from him, stood no chance with that of my landlord, which could be distinctly heard from one end of the street to the other. The people, therefore, who generally give the palm in such cases to him who makes the most noise, no longer doubting the justice of my complaint, cried aloud, that the banker should be compelled instantly to refund. The Bargello, addressing himself to the accused, represented to him, “that it was in vain to resist in retaining money which did not belong to him; that he would be compelled to make restitution, and that it was his duty to search his house for the casket and bag. Give me,” added he, “the key of your strong box; let us begin by visiting that, as your accuser affirms it is there you have deposited them.” Plati being apprehensive of pillage during this uproar could not make up his mind to deliver the key; upon which the general cry was to lead him to prison. “We will do better than that,” said the officer, “if he obey not this instant, I will have the strong box forced open.”
The unfortunate banker seeing that all resistance was useless, drew from his pocket the key, and delivered it into the hands of the officer, who, after having chosen four citizens out of those present, to be witness of the intended ceremony, opened the strong box before them and Plati, who almost fainted away when the gilt casket and bag were drawn forth. The Bargello then turning to this poor devil, “friend,” said he, “did you not say you would forfeit your life and property if this casket were found in your house? what if we take you at your word? Good heavens! what a trustworthy banker.” Thus saying, he shut down the strong box, and held up the casket in one hand and the bag in the other. The company present no sooner saw them, than they began, especially mine host, to load the banker with curses and revilings. The officer, in order to sift the thing to the bottom, determined to open the casket. He asked me if I had the key. I drew it from my pocket, and handed it to him. The first thing that presented itself to his view, was the specification in these terms: “This Casket contains nine hundred and sixty pistoles in gold, and ten quadruples; the whole making one thousand pistoles, and belonging to Don Juan Osorio.” The quadruples were in a parcel by themselves. These he shewed to the banker, and then proceeded to open the bag in which were found the thirty Roman crowns and the others with a similar account.
The cries of the company redoubled at sight of the sums exactly as I had stated them, and every one pressed the Bargello to give me up the casket and bag; which the officer would immediately have acceded to, if I had not declared that I would not receive my money except at the hands of justice, since we were in a city where, thank God, upright judges were to be found. The banker, being once more called upon to say what he had to allege against such positive proof, answered, more dead than alive, and not knowing what to think of an adventure which appeared so natural; “that it was all magic to him, and that the devil must assuredly have had a hand in it.” “If you have no better argument than that to bring forward,” said the officer to him, “you have every chance of losing your cause, and being punished severely to boot.” Thus saying, he left the casket and bag in the custody of a rich merchant in the neighbourhood, and went to make his report to the Judges, who cited Signor Plati and me to appear before them the next morning. The banker was himself so ill that he found it impossible to attend, and contented himself by sending his wife and clerk with some of his friends. As for me, I appeared boldly accompanied by Sayavedra, my landlord and landlady, all three of whom were interrogated alternately, and asserted a great deal, especially the two last, more than they had either seen or heard. The judges heard Aguilera and his mistress in their turns, who confessed that not having been in the counting-house the whole of the day on which I stated that I had brought the money, they could not conscientiously swear that I had not been there.
Upon all these depositions the magistrates condemned my adversary to restore my gold and silver, and pay all costs, prohibiting him from ever practising the profession of banker again in Milan. The Bargello, in execution of this sentence, conducted me to the merchant with whom he had left the casket and bag, and having restored them to me, I returned triumphantly to my inn. When I arrived there, I was not a little time occupied in receiving congratulations on my success. The landlord and his wife among the rest could not moderate their joy. To testify my gratitude I made them some trifling presents, and all their servants had reason to praise my generous disposition.