This is the last glimpse we have of Michelangelo before his flight from Rome.  Under what circumstances he suddenly departed may be related in the words of a letter addressed by him to Giuliano da San Gallo in Rome upon the 2nd of May 1506, after his return to Florence.

“Giuliano,—­Your letter informs me that the Pope was angry at my departure, as also that his Holiness is inclined to proceed with the works agreed upon between us, and that I may return and not be anxious about anything.

“About my leaving Rome, it is a fact that on Holy Saturday I heard the Pope, in conversation with a jeweller at table and with the Master of Ceremonies, say that he did not mean to spend a farthing more on stones, small or great.  This caused me no little astonishment.  However, before I left his presence, I asked for part of the money needed to carry on the work.  His Holiness told me to return on Monday.  I did so, and on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, and on Thursday, as the Pope saw.  At last, on Friday morning, I was sent away, or plainly turned out of doors.  The man who did this said he knew me, but that such were his orders.  I, who had heard the Pope’s words on Saturday, and now perceived their result in deeds, was utterly cast down.  This was not, however, quite the only reason of my departure; there was something else, which I do not wish to communicate; enough that it made me think that, if I stayed in Rome, that city would be my tomb before it was the Pope’s.  And this was the cause of my sudden departure.

“Now you write to me at the Pope’s instance.  So I beg you to read him this letter, and inform his Holiness that I am even more than ever disposed to carry out the work.”

Further details may be added from subsequent letters of Michelangelo.  Writing in January 1524 to his friend Giovanni Francesco Fattucci, he says:  “When I had finished paying for the transport of these marbles, and all the money was spent, I furnished the house I had upon the Piazza di S. Pietro with beds and utensils at my own expense, trusting to the commission of the tomb, and sent for workmen from Florence, who are still alive, and paid them in advance out of my own purse.  Meanwhile Pope Julius changed his mind about the tomb, and would not have it made.  Not knowing this, I applied to him for money, and was expelled from the chamber.  Enraged at such an insult, I left Rome on the moment.  The things with which my house was stocked went to the dogs.  The marbles I had brought to Rome lay till the date of Leo’s creation on the Piazza, and both lots were injured and pillaged.”

Again, a letter of October 1542, addressed to some prelate, contains further particulars.  We learn he was so short of money that he had to borrow about 200 ducats from his friend Baldassare Balducci at the bank of Jacopo Gallo.  The episode at the Vatican and the flight to Poggibonsi are related thus:—­