of his speech, together with the look and colour of his face, made me feel extremely uneasy about his life.  The end may not be just now, but I fear greatly that it cannot be far off.”  Michelangelo did not leave the house again, but spent the next four days partly reclining in an arm-chair, partly in bed.  Upon the 15th following, Diomede Leoni wrote to Lionardo, enclosing a letter by the hand of Daniele da Volterra, which Michelangelo had signed.  The old man felt his end approaching, and wished to see his nephew.  “You will learn from the enclosure how ill he is, and that he wants you to come to Rome.  He was taken ill yesterday.  I therefore exhort you to come at once, but do so with sufficient prudence.  The roads are bad now, and you are not used to travel by post.  This being so, you would run some risk if you came post-haste.  Taking your own time upon the way, you may feel at ease when you remember that Messer Tommaso dei Cavalieri, Messer Daniele, and I are here to render every possible assistance in your absence.  Beside us, Antonio, the old and faithful servant of your uncle, will be helpful in any service that may be expected from him.”  Diomede reiterates his advice that Lionardo should run no risks by travelling too fast.  “If the illness portends mischief, which God forbid, you could not with the utmost haste arrive in time....  I left him just now, a little after 8 P.M., in full possession of his faculties and quiet in his mind, but oppressed with a continued sleepiness.  This has annoyed him so much that, between three and four this afternoon, he tried to go out riding, as his wont is every evening in good weather.  The coldness of the weather and the weakness of his head and legs prevented him; so he returned to the fire-side, and settled down into an easy chair, which he greatly prefers to the bed.”  No improvement gave a ray of hope to Michelangelo’s friends, and two days later, on the 17th, Tiberio Calcagni took up the correspondence with Lionardo:  “This is to beg you to hasten your coming as much as possible, even though the weather be unfavourable.  It is certain now that our dear Messer Michelangelo must leave us for good and all, and he ought to have the consolation of seeing you.”  Next day, on the 18th, Diomede Leoni wrote again:  “He died without making a will, but in the attitude of a perfect Christian, this evening, about the Ave Maria.  I was present, together with Messer Tommaso dei Cavalieri and Messer Daniele da Volterra, and we put everything in such order that you may rest with a tranquil mind.  Yesterday Michelangelo sent for our friend Messer Daniele, and besought him to take up his abode in the house until such time as you arrive, and this he will do.”

It was at a little before five o’clock on the afternoon of February 18, 1564, that Michelangelo breathed his last.  The physicians who attended him to the end were Federigo Donati, and Gherardo Fidelissimi, of Pistoja.  It is reported by Vasari that, during his last moments, “he made his will in three sentences, committing his soul into the hands of God, his body to the earth, and his substance to his nearest relatives; enjoining upon these last, when their hour came, to think upon the sufferings of Jesus Christ.”