Soon after the Count returned, and ‘lavished caresses’ upon Bebo and his precious comrade.  They did not tell him what they had achieved that morning, but put him off with a story of having settled a sbirro in a quarrel about a girl.  Then the Count invited them to dinner; and being himself bound to entertain the first physician of Venice, requested them to take it in an upper chamber.  He and his secretary served them with their own hands at table.  When the physician arrived, the Count went downstairs; and at this moment a messenger came from Lorenzino’s mother, begging the doctor to go at once to San Polo, for that her son had been murdered and Soderini wounded to the death.  It was now no longer possible to conceal their doings from the Count, who told them to pluck up courage and abide in patience.  He had himself to dine and take his siesta, and then to attend a meeting of the Council.

About the hour of vespers, Bibboni determined to seek better refuge.  Followed at a discreet distance by Bebo, he first called at their lodgings and ordered supper.  Two priests came in and fell into conversation with them.  But something in the behavior of one of these good men roused his suspicions.  So they left the house, took a gondola, and told the man to row hard to S. Maria Zobenigo.  On the way he bade him put them on shore, paid him well, and ordered him to wait for them.  They landed near the palace of the Spanish embassy; and here Bibboni meant to seek sanctuary.  For it must be remembered that the houses of ambassadors, no less than those of princes of the Church, were inviolable.  They offered the most convenient harboring-places to rascals.  Charles V., moreover, was deeply interested in the vengeance taken on Alessandro de’Medici’s murderer, for his own natural daughter was Alessandro’s widow and Duchess of Florence.  In the palace they were received with much courtesy by about forty Spaniards, who showed considerable curiosity, and told them that Lorenzino and Alessandro Soderini had been murdered that morning by two men whose description answered to their appearance.  Bibboni put their questions by and asked to see the ambassador.  He was not at home.  ‘In that case,’ said Bibboni, ’take us to the secretary.  Attended by some thirty Spaniards, ’with great joy and gladness,’ they were shown into the secretary’s chamber.  He sent the rest of the folk away, ’and locked the door well, and then embraced and kissed us before we had said a word, and afterwards bade us talk freely without any fear.’  When Bibboni had told the whole story, he was again embraced and kissed by the secretary, who thereupon left them and went to the private apartment of the ambassador.  Shortly after he returned and led them by a winding staircase into the presence of his master.  The ambassador greeted them with great honor, told them he would strain all the power of the empire to hand them in safety over to Duke Cosimo, and that he had already sent a courier to the Emperor with the good news.