he might need (a
proof of the fame which he enjoyed already throughout the whole of
Italy). Michelangelo, however, refused everything and withdrew to the
Giudecca. He thought of going to France and spoke of this intention to
Battista della Palla, the agent of Francis I in Italy for the purchase
of works of art. Lazare de Baif, the ambassador of France at Venice, was
told of this and wrote immediately to Francis I and to the Constable de
Montmorency, urging them to profit by this chance to secure
Michelangelo. The King at once offered Michelangelo a pension and a
house, but by the time the letter arrived at Venice he had already
returned to Florence.

His flight had caused a great sensation there. The Signory on September
30th decreed that all those who had deserted should be declared rebel
and banished if they did not return by October 7th. On the date fixed
Michelangelo had not returned. A decree declared the fugitives rebels
and their goods confiscated, but the name of Michelangelo did not
figure on the list. They gave him another chance. A few days later the
Florentine envoy at Ferrara, Galeotto Guigni, informed the Signory that
Michelangelo had heard of the decree too late and that he was ready to
return if he would be pardoned. The Signory promised to forgive him and
had a safe conduct sent to him in Venice by the stone-cutter, Bastiano
di Francesco, who brought him at the same time letters from ten of his
friends all beseeching him to return to Florence. He had had time to
reflect on what he had done and was ashamed of his pitiful panic. He
went back to Florence on November 20, 1529, and on the 23rd the decree
of banishment was removed by the Signory, but the Grand Council was
closed to him for three years. According to a letter of Sebastiano del
Piombo, Michelangelo also had to pay to the city a fine of fifteen
hundred ducats.

From that time on he did his duty bravely. He took his place again at
San Miniato, which the enemy had been bombarding for a month. He had the
hill fortified all over again, and it is said that he saved the
campanile by covering it with bales of wool and mattresses hung on
cords. The last record of his activity during the siege is a note of
February 22, 1530, which shows him climbing the dome of the cathedral,
doubtless to watch the movements of the enemy or to examine into the
condition of the dome itself, strained by the bombardment.

[Illustration: DECORATIVE FIGURE

Ceiling of th