All This I Saw Myself, And Could Not Forbear Endeavouring To
Convince Our Protector How Much He Was Imposed Upon:
He was not
long before he was satisfied that he had been too credulous, for all
those that had so industriously searched after this imaginary
wealth, within five hours left the work in despair, and I continued
almost alone with the prince.
Imagining no time more proper to make the proposal I was sent with
than while his passion was still hot against the monks, I presented
him with two ounces of gold and two plates of silver, with some
other things of small value, and was so successful that he gratified
me in all my requests, and gave us leave to return to Adicora, where
we were so fortunate to find our huts yet uninjured and entire.
About this time the fathers who had stayed behind at Fremona arrived
with the new viceroy, and an officer fierce in the defence of his
own religion, who had particular orders to deliver all the Jesuits
up to the Turks, except me, whom the Emperor was resolved to have in
his own hands, alive or dead. We had received some notice of this
resolution from our friends at court, and were likewise informed
that the Emperor, their master, had been persuaded that my design
was to procure assistance from the Indies, and that I should
certainly return at the head of an army. The patriarch's advice
upon this emergency was that I should retire into the woods, and by
some other road join the nine Jesuits who were gone towards Mazna.
I could think of no better expedient, and therefore went away in the
night between the 23rd and 24th of April with my comrade, an old
man, very infirm and very timorous.
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