Some sort of arrangement must have been arrived at.  Clement took the matter into his own hands, and during the summer of 1525 amicable negotiations were in progress.  On the 4th of September Michelangelo writes again to Fattucci, saying that he is quite willing to complete the tomb upon the same plan as that of the Pope Pius (now in the Church of S. Andrea della Valle)—­that is, to adopt a mural system instead of the vast detached monument.  This would take less time.  He again urges his friend not to stay at Rome for the sake of these affairs.  He hears that the plague is breaking out there.  “And I would rather have you alive than my business settled.  If I die before the Pope, I shall not have to settle any troublesome affairs.  If I live, I am sure the Pope will settle them, if not now, at some other time.  So come back.  I was with your mother yesterday, and advised her, in the presence of Granacci and John the turner, to send for you home.”

While in Rome Michelangelo conferred with Clement about the sacristy and library at S. Lorenzo.  For a year after his return to Florence he worked steadily at the Medicean monuments, but not without severe annoyances, as appears from the following to Fattucci:  “The four statues I have in hand are not yet finished, and much has still to be done upon them.  The four rivers are not begun, because the marble is wanting, and yet it is here.  I do not think it opportune to tell you why.  With regard to the affairs of Julius, I am well disposed to make the tomb like that of Pius in S. Peter’s, and will do so little by little, now one piece and now another, and will pay for it out of my own pocket, if I keep my pension and my house, as you promised me.  I mean, of course, the house at Rome, and the marbles and other things I have there.  So that, in fine, I should not have to restore to the heirs of Julius, in order to be quit of the contract, anything which I have hitherto received; the tomb itself, completed after the pattern of that of Pius, sufficing for my full discharge.  Moreover, I undertake to perform the work within a reasonable time, and to finish the statues with my own hand.”  He then turns to his present troubles at Florence.  The pension was in arrears, and busybodies annoyed him with interferences of all sorts.  “If my pension were paid, as was arranged, I would never stop working for Pope Clement with all the strength I have, small though that be, since I am old.  At the same time I must not be slighted and affronted as I am now, for such treatment weighs greatly on my spirits.  The petty spites I speak of have prevented me from doing what I want to do these many months; one cannot work at one thing with the hands, another with the brain, especially in marble.  ’Tis said here that these annoyances are meant to spur me on; but I maintain that those are scurvy spurs which make a good steed jib.  I have not touched my pension during the past year, and struggle with poverty.  I am left in solitude to bear my troubles, and have so many that they occupy me more than does my art; I cannot keep a man to manage my house through lack of means.”