on the monument, the
Cardinal proceeds: "Be then of good courage, and do not yield to any
perturbations of the spirit, for we put more faith in your smallest
word than if all the world should say the contrary. We know your
loyalty, and believe you to be wholly devoted to our person; and if
there shall be need of aught which we can supply, we are willing, as
we have told you on other occasions, to do so; rest then in all
security of mind, because we love you from the heart, and desire to do
all that may be agreeable to you." This good friend was dead at the
time we have now reached, and the violent Duke Francesco Maria della
Rovere acted as the principal heir of Pope Julius.

In a passion of disgust he refused to draw his pension, and abandoned
the house at S. Lorenzo. This must have happened in March 1524, for
his friend Leonardo writes to him from Rome upon the 24th: "I am also
told that you have declined your pension, which seems to me mere
madness, and that you have thrown the house up, and do not work.
Friend and gossip, let me tell you that you have plenty of enemies,
who speak their worst; also that the Pope and Pucci and Jacopo
Salviati are your friends, and have plighted their troth to you. It is
unworthy of you to break your word to them, especially in an affair of
honour. Leave the matter of the tomb to those who wish you well, and
who are able to set you free without the least encumbrance, and take
care you do not come short in the Pope's work. Die first. And take the
pension, for they give it with a willing heart." How long he remained
in contumacy is not quite certain; apparently until the 29th of
August. We have a letter written on that day to Giovanni Spina: "After
I left you yesterday, I went back thinking over my affairs; and,
seeing that the Pope has set his heart on S. Lorenzo, and how he
urgently requires my service, and has appointed me a good provision in
order that I may serve him with more convenience and speed; seeing
also that not to accept it keeps me back, and that I have no good
excuse for not serving his Holiness; I have changed my mind, and
whereas I hitherto refused, I now demand it (_i.e._, the salary),
considering this far wiser, and for more reasons than I care to write;
and, more especially, I mean to return to the house you took for me at
S. Lorenzo, and settle down there like an honest man: inasmuch as it
sets gossip going, and does me great damage not to go back there."
From a _R