I am afraid lest the small return I have made for the great benefits, I have received from your Excellency, have not made you somewhat angry with me, and that this is why to so many letters which I have written to your Lordship I have never had an answer.  I now send Salai to explain to your Lordship that I am almost at an end of the litigation I had with my brother; that I hope to find myself with you this Easter, and to carry with me two pictures of two Madonnas of different sizes.  These were done for our most Christian King, or for whomsoever your Lordship may please.  I should be very glad to know on my return thence where I may have to reside, for I would not give any more trouble to your Lordship.  Also, as I have worked for the most Christian King, whether my salary is to continue or not.  I wrote to the President as to that water which the king granted me, and which I was not put in possession of because at that time there was a dearth in the canal by reason of the great droughts and because [Footnote:Compare Nos. 1009 and 1010.  Leonardo has noted the payment of the pension from the king in 1505.] its outlets were not regulated; but he certainly promised me that when this was done I should be put in possession.  Thus I pray your Lordship that you will take so much trouble, now that these outlets are regulated, as to remind the President of my matter; that is, to give me possession of this water, because on my return I hope to make there instruments and other things which will greatly please our most Christian King.  Nothing else occurs to me.  I am always yours to command. [Footnote:1349.  Charles d’Amboise, Marechal de Chaumont, was Governor of Milan under Louis XII.  Leonardo was in personal communication with him so early as in 1503.  He was absent from Milan in the autumn of 1506 and from October l5l0—­when he besieged Pope Julius II. in Bologna—­till his death, which took place at Correggio, February 11, 1511.  Francesco Vinci, Leonardo’s uncle, died—­as Amoretti tells us—­in the winter of l5l0-11 (or according to Uzielli in 1506?), and Leonardo remained in Florence for business connected with his estate.  The letter written with reference to this affair, No. 1348, is undoubtedly earlier than the letters Nos. 1349 and 1350.  Amoretti tells us, Memorie Storiche, ch.  II, that the following note existed on the same leaf in MS. C. A. I have not however succeeded in finding it.  The passage runs thus:  Jo sono quasi al fine del mio letizio che io o con mie fratetgli ...  Ancora ricordo a V. Excia la facenda che o cum Ser Juliana mio Fratello capo delli altri fratelli ricordandoli come se offerse di conciar le cose nostre fra noi fratelli del comune della eredita de mio Zio, e quelli costringa alla expeditione, quale conteneva la lettera che lui me mando.]

Drafts of Letters to the Superintendent of Canals and to Fr. Melzi.

1350.

Magnificent President, I am sending thither Salai, my pupil, who is the bearer of this, and from him you will hear by word of mouth the cause of my...