he sent Messer Vitelli for Michelangelo, ordering him to ride with them, and to select a proper position for the building.  Michelangelo refused, saying that he had received no commission from the Pope.  The Duke waxed very wroth; and so, through this new grievance added to old grudges and the notorious nature of the Duke, Michelangelo not unreasonably lived in fear.  It was certainly by God’s aid that he happened to be away from Florence when Clement died.”  Michelangelo was bound under solemn obligations to execute no work but what the Pope ordered for himself or permitted by the contract with the heirs of Julius.  Therefore he acted in accordance with duty when he refused to advise the tyrant in this scheme for keeping the city under permanent subjection.  The man who had fortified Florence against the troops of Clement could not assist another bastard Medici to build a strong place for her ruin.  It may be to this period of his life that we owe the following madigral, written upon the loss of Florentine liberty and the bad conscience of the despot:—­

  Lady, for joy of lovers numberless
      Thou wast created fair as angels are. 
      Sure God hath fallen asleep in heaven afar
      When one man calls the bliss of many his! 
      Give back to streaming eyes
      The daylight of thy face, that seems to shun
      Those who must live defrauded of their bliss!

  Vex not your pure desire with tears and sighs: 
      For he who robs you of my light hath none. 
      Dwelling in fear, sin hath no happiness;
      Since, amid those who love, their joy is less,
      Whose great desire great plenty still curtails,
      Than theirs who, poor, have hope that never fails._

During the siege Michelangelo had been forced to lend the Signory a sum of about 1500 ducats.  In the summer of 1533 he corresponded with Sebastiano about means for recovering this loan.  On the 16th of August Sebastiano writes that he has referred the matter to the Pope.  “I repeat, what I have already written, that I presented your memorial to his Holiness.  It was about eight in the evening, and the Florentine ambassador was present.  The Pope then ordered the ambassador to write immediately to the Duke; and this he did with such vehemence and passion as I do not think he has displayed on four other occasions concerning the affairs of Florence.  His rage and fury were tremendous, and the words he used to the ambassador would stupefy you, could you hear them.  Indeed, they are not fit to be written down, and I must reserve them for viva voce.  I burn to have half an hour’s conversation with you, for now I know our good and holy master to the ground.  Enough, I think you must have already seen something of the sort.  In brief, he has resolved that you are to be repaid the 400 ducats of the guardianship and the 500 ducats lent to the old Government.”  It may be readily imagined that this restitution of a debt incurred by Florence when she was fighting for her liberties, to which act of justice her victorious tyrant was compelled by his Papal kinsman, did not soften Alessandro’s bad feeling for the creditor.