f Master Bernardo,
who has arrived; by it I hear all are well except Giovansimone,
who has not yet recovered. I am very sorry, and it grieves me not
to be able to help him. But soon I hope to be with you, and I will
do something that will please him, and you others, too. Therefore
comfort him and tell him to be of good cheer. Tell Lodovico also
that about the middle of next month I hope to cast my figure
without fail; therefore, if he will offer prayers, or anything
else for its good success, let him do so betimes, and say I beg
this of him. I have no time to write more. Things go well.

"The twenty-sixth day of May (1507).

"MICHAEL ANGELO, in Bologna."(95)

At last, on July 1, it is done, but done badly; and he writes:--

To the same.

"BUONARROTO,--We have cast my figure, and it has come out so badly
that I truly believe I shall have to do it all again. I cannot
write all the particulars, because I have other things to think
of. Enough that it has come badly. Thanks be to God all the same,
because I believe everything is for the best. Before long I shall
know what I have to do and will write to you. Tell Lodovico about
it, and be of good cheer. And if it should be that I have to do it
all again, and that I am not able to return to you, I will find
means somehow to do what I have promised in the best way I can.

"The first day of July.

"MICHAEL ANGELO, in Bologna."(96)

He gives further details in his next letter:--

"BUONARROTO,--Understand how that we have cast my figure. I have
not had much luck in it; for Master Bernardino, either by
ignorance or misfortune, did not sufficiently melt the bronze. How
it happened would be long to tell; it is enough that my figure has
come out up to the girdle; the rest of the stuff, that is to say
the metal, remained in the furnace; it was not melted; so that to
get it out I shall have the furnace taken to pieces, and that I am
doing now, and I will have it remade again this week. Next week I
will recast the upper part and finish filling the mould, and I
believe that this bad business will go very well, but not without
the greatest devotion, labour, and expense. I would have believed
that Master Bernardino could have cast it without fire, so much
faith had I in him; all the same, it is not that