Chapter 16
as it was in 1556, and details concerning the principal edifices.]
[Footnote 12: "Geronimo went to Simon and demanded payment of the sum lent, and for which he held a note. Turchi made various excuses, and put off payment from day to day."--_Matteo Bandello._]
[Footnote 13: "A fierce desire of vengeance took possession of Simon, and he sought to kill Geronimo."--_Matieo Bandello._]
[Footnote 14: A measure of four pints.]
[Footnote 15: "One night, when passing through the streets, he received from the hands of an enemy an ugly wound in the face. He suspected Geronimo of having inflicted it; in which he was mistaken, for the author of the attack was afterwards discovered."--_Matteo Bandello_.]
[Footnote 16: "After Simon Turchi had determined to revenge himself, and after long consideration, he ordered a large wooden arm-chair, to which were attached two iron bars, so arranged that whoever should sit down in it would be caught by the legs below the knees, and would be unable to move."--Van Meteren, _History of the Low Countries_.]
[Footnote 17: "Geronimo, a merchant from Lyons desires to see you, but as he does not wish to be known at Antwerp now, he is concealed in my garden. He begs that you will meet him there."--_Matteo Bandello_.]
[Footnote 18: "This chair being made, he told one of his servants, named Julio, who was proscribed in Italy, and under sentence of death."--Van Meteren, _History of the Low Countries_.]
[Footnote 19: "And the said Julio pushed Geronimo into a large arm-chair, which sprang and closed."--_Origin and Genealogy of the Dukes and Duchesses of Brabant_. Antwerp, 1565; p. 308.]
[Footnote 20: "In the cellar ... in a grave which had been prepared by the said Julio to bury Geronimo after the commission of the murder."--_Origin and Genealogy of the Dukes and Duchesses of Brabant_.]
[Footnote 21: _Order and Proclamation of Messire Van Schoonhoven, bailiff, and of the Burgomaster, Constables, and Council of the city of Antwerp_:
"It having come to the knowledge of the bailiff, burgomaster, and constables of this city that Geronimo Deodati, a merchant of Lucca, went out yesterday afternoon, about four o'clock, from his residence in this city, near the Convent of the Dominicans, and that he was seen for the last time beyond the Square of Meir, and since then he has not been heard of, and we know not what has become of him, so that there is great suspicion that the said Geronimo has been maltreated, or even put to death; therefore, the magistrates of the same city do proclaim that he who first will give information as to what has become of the said Geronimo, will receive the sum of three hundred florins."--_Extract from the "Book of Laws of the City of Antwerp_."]
[Footnote 22: "The bailiff said that the magistrates had determined to search all the stables, cellars, and gardens, to discover whether the ground in any of these places had been recently dug."--E. Van Meteren, _History of the Low Countries_.]
[Footnote 23: "Simon Turchi was known to be a perverse and immoral man; in a word, he was a compound of every vice and every evil inclination."--_Matteo Bandello_.]
[Footnote 24: "Go and do what I have commanded you. Disinter the body, take it on your shoulders and cast it into the sewer which is in the square where the three streets meet."--_Simon Turchi_.--_Matteo Bandello_.]
[Footnote 25: "I will send Bernardo to help you, and I will order him to obey you, whatever you may command. When you have thrown the body into the sewer, you can, by a quick movement, push Bernardo in also. The sewer is deep, and whoever falls into it is immediately drowned."--_Matteo Bandello_.]
[Footnote 26: "Simon Turchi begged Julio to take the crime upon himself."--Van Meteren, _History of the Low Countries_.]