cute so honourable an undertaking save only with the help of
others. He also used many other devices, and so went to work in
various ways and by various means that he succeeded in changing the
purpose of those lords, who finally entrusted to Cardinal Salviati the
charge of making an agreement with Baccio.

At this time the Emperor Charles V had arrived in Naples, and in Rome
Filippo Strozzi, Anton Francesco degli Albizzi, and the other exiles
were seeking to arrange with Cardinal Salviati to go and set his
Majesty against Duke Alessandro; and they were with the Cardinal at
all hours. Baccio was also all day long in Salviati's halls and
apartments, waiting to have the contract made for the tombs, but not
able to bring matters to a head, because of the Cardinal's
preoccupation with the affairs of the exiles; and they, seeing Baccio
in those rooms morning and evening, grew suspicious of this, and,
fearing lest he might be there to spy upon their movements and give
information to the Duke, some of the young men among them agreed to
follow him secretly one evening and put him out of the way. But
Fortune, coming to his aid in time, brought it about that the two
other Cardinals, with Messer Baldassarre da Pescia, undertook to
finish Baccio's business. Knowing that Baccio was worth little as an
architect, they had caused a design to be made by Antonio da San
Gallo, which pleased them, and had ordained that all the mason's work
to be done in marble should be executed under the direction of the
sculptor Lorenzetto, and that the marble statues and scenes should be
allotted to Baccio. Having arranged the matter in this way, they
finally made the contract with Baccio, who therefore appeared no more
about the house of Cardinal Salviati, withdrawing himself just in
time; and the exiles, the occasion having passed by, thought nothing
more about him.

After these things Baccio made two models of wood, with the statues
and scenes in wax. These models had the bases solid, without
projections, and on each base were four fluted Ionic columns, which
divided the space into three compartments, a large one in the middle,
where in each there was a Pope in full pontificals seated upon a
pedestal, who was giving the benediction, and smaller spaces, each
with a niche containing a figure in the round and standing upright,
four braccia high; which figures, representing Saints, stood on either
side of those Popes. The order of the composition had th