第307页 / 共310页

To an envious man who laughed, he said: "Do you laugh because you

are successful or because another is unfortunate?" Whilst he was

still in the charge of Messer Francesco Guinigi, one of his

companions said to him: "What shall I give you if you will let me

give you a blow on the nose?" Castruccio answered: "A helmet."

Having put to death a citizen of Lucca who had been instrumental

in raising him to power, and being told that he had done wrong to

kill one of his old friends, he answered that people deceived

themselves; he had only killed a new enemy. Castruccio praised

greatly those men who intended to take a wife and then did not do

so, saying that they were like men who said they would go to sea,

and then refused when the time came. He said that it always

struck him with surprise that whilst men in buying an earthen or

glass vase would sound it first to learn if it were good, yet in

choosing a wife they were content with only looking at her.