Also I took pains to hide my great riches from
the public eye, placing much of them in the names of others whom I could
trust, and living most modestly in the same old house, lest I should
become a man envied by the hungry and marked for plunder by the
spendthrift great.
It was during the summer following my uncle's death that I went to the
wharves to see to the unloading of a ship that came in from Venice,
bearing many goods from the East on my account, such as ivory, silks,
spices, glass, carpets, and I know not what. Having finished my business
and seen these precious things warehoused, I handed over the checking of
a list of them to another and turned to seek my horse.
Then it was that I saw a number of half-grown lads and other idlers
mobbing a man who stood among them wrapped in a robe of what looked like
tattered sheepskin, yet was not because the wool on it was of a reddish
hue and very long and soft, which robe was thrown over his head hiding
his face. At this man--a tall figure who stood there patiently like
a martyr at the stake--these lewd fellows were hurling offal, such as
fishes' heads and rotted fruits that lay in plenty on the quay, together
with coarse words.
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