ot expecting it, and he was
reminded by the Cardinal of his promise; whereupon, seeing himself
bound, like the courteous man that he was, he would not break his
word, and thus accepted as his wife a niece of that Cardinal. And
because he was always very ill content with this entanglement, he
continued to delay the matter in such a way that many months passed
without the marriage being brought to pass. But it was with no
dishonourable motive that he did this, for, having been so many
years in the service of the Court, and being the creditor of Leo
for a good sum, it had been hinted to him that when the hall on
which he was engaged was finished, the Pope proposed to reward him
for his labours and abilities by giving him a red hat, of which he
had already determined to distribute a good number, and some of them
to men of less merit than Raffaello.

Meanwhile, pursuing his amours in secret, Raffaello continued to
divert himself beyond measure with the pleasures of love; whence it
happened that, having on one occasion indulged in more than his
usual excess, he returned to his house in a violent fever. The
physicians, therefore, believing that he had overheated himself, and
receiving from him no confession of the excess of which he had been
guilty, imprudently bled him, insomuch that he was weakened and felt
himself sinking; for he was in need rather of restoratives.
Thereupon he made his will: and first, like a good Christian, he
sent his mistress out of the house, leaving her the means to live
honourably. Next, he divided his possessions among his disciples,
Giulio Romano, whom he had always loved dearly, and the Florentine
Giovanni Francesco, called Il Fattore, with a priest of Urbino, his
kinsman, whose name I do not know. Then he gave orders that some of
his wealth should be used for restoring with new masonry one of the
ancient tabernacles in S. Maria Ritonda, and for making an altar,
with a marble statue of Our Lady, in that church, which he chose as
his place of repose and burial after death; and he left all the rest
to Giulio and Giovanni Francesco, appointing as executor of his will
Messer Baldassarre da Pescia, then Datary to the Pope. Finally, he
confessed and was penitent, and ended the course of his life at the
age of thirty-seven, on the same day that he was born, which was
Good Friday. And even as he embellished the world with his talents,
so, it may be believed, does his soul adorn Heaven by its presence.