22. Humiliated by an Elaborate Deceit, This Unfortunate Mark Moved to Another Country
In Matteo’s home, the cabinet maker’s protests that he was Manetto, and not Matteo, were dismissed with derision. It did not take long before he was nearly convinced that he had, indeed, morphed into somebody else. Eventually, Manetto was put to sleep with a potion supplied by Brunelleschi, and carried unconscious back to his own home for the final chapter of the deceit. When Manetto came to the following day in his own home, he discovered that his house was in disarray, with furniture, tools, and other items rearranged.
His confusion grew with the arrival of Matteo’s brothers, who now addressed him by his real name, Manetto. They shared a weird story about the previous evening, when their sibling got it in his head that he was Manetto. The story was confirmed when Matteo arrived, and described an odd dream in which he had been Manetto. That nearly drove Manetto around the bend, as he became convinced – at least for a while – that he had spent a couple of days morphed into Matteo. Eventually, when he discovered what had actually happened, Manetto felt so humiliated by the deceit in which so many had participated, that he left Florence and moved to Hungary.
