e been quite legitimate;
but Condivi says that it is not true that he refused to teach them, but,
on the contrary, he did so willingly. "I myself am the proof of that,
for he opened the secrets of his heart to me. The trouble was that he
met with pupils that had no ability, or with able ones who were not
persevering and who after a few months of his teaching thought
themselves already masters. And though he took a great deal of trouble
to help them he did not want to have this known, for he loved rather to
do good than to seem to do it."

His letters show what fatherly patience he had with these poor
creatures. He forgave them any folly if they only showed a little good
will and affection.

The one that he cared for the most was Francesco d'Amadore, called
Urbino, the son of Guido di Colonello de Castel Durante, who was in his
service from 1530 and had worked on the tomb of Julius II. Michelangelo
was worried about what would become of Urbino after his own death, and
one day, says Vasari, he asked him, "What will you do when I die?" When
Urbino answered, "I will have to serve some other master," Michelangelo
said, "Poor fellow, I am going to cure your poverty," and gave him two
thousand crowns on the spot, "a gift such as only emperors and popes
bestow."

It was Urbino who died first in 1555, and the day after Michelangelo
wrote to his nephew Lionardo: "I must tell you that Urbino died
yesterday at ten o'clock. He has left me so sad and troubled because of
the love I had for him that it would have been easier to have died with
him. He was a worthy man, loyal and faithful. Since he has gone I do
not seem to be alive and I can not recover my peace of mind."[115]

Lionardo and his wife Cassandra, anxious on account of his great grief,
went to Rome and found him much weakened. But he drew new energy from
the charge which Urbino had left him in the guardianship of his sons,
one of whom was his godson and bore his name. He wrote to Cornelia,
Urbino's wife, that he would like to take the little Michelangelo to
live with him. He showed him more affection than even the children of
his nephew, and had him taught all that Urbino had wished him to
learn.[116]

He showed the most touching affection for his old servants, and also for
those of his family whom he had taken in after his father's death, and
for the workmen who had helped him at Carrara and in the Sistine Chapel.

His enemies accused him of avarice,[117] but Vasari