Florence for Ferrara after the 28th of July, and reached it on the and
of August. He refused, as Giugni writes with some regret, to abandon
his inn, but was personally conducted with great honour by the Duke
all round the walls and fortresses of Ferrara. On what day he quitted
that city, and whither he went immediately after his departure, is
uncertain. The Ten wrote to Giugni on the 8th of August, saying that
his presence was urgently required at Florence, since the work of
fortification was going on apace, "a multitude of men being employed,
and no respect being paid to feast-days and holidays." It would also
seem that, toward the close of the month, he was expected at Arezzo,
in order to survey and make suggestions on the defences of the city.

These points are not insignificant, since we possess a _Ricordo_ by
Michelangelo, written upon an unfinished letter bearing the date
"Venice, September 10," which has been taken to imply that he had been
resident in Venice fourteen days--that is, from the 28th of August.
None of his contemporaries or biographers mention a visit to Venice at
the end of August 1529. It has, therefore, been conjectured that he
went there after leaving Ferrara, but that his mission was one of a
very secret nature. This seems inconsistent with the impatient desire
expressed by the War Office for his return to Florence after the 8th
of August. Allowing for exchange of letters and rate of travelling,
Michelangelo could not have reached home much before the 15th. It is
also inconsistent with the fact that he was expected in Arezzo at the
beginning of September. I shall have to return later on to the
_Ricordo_ in question, which has an important bearing on the next and
most dramatic episode in his biography.

III

Michelangelo must certainly have been at Florence soon after the
middle of September. One of those strange panics to which he was
constitutionally subject, and which impelled him to act upon a
suddenly aroused instinct, came now to interrupt his work at S.
Miniato, and sent him forth into outlawry. It was upon the 21st of
September that he fled from Florence, under circumstances which have
given considerable difficulty to his biographers. I am obliged to
disentangle the motives and to set forth the details of this escapade,
so far as it is possible for criticism to connect them into a coherent
narrative. With this object in view, I will begin by translating what
Condivi says upon the sub