lgrimage to Loreto, but
feeling tired, had stopped to rest at Spoleto. While he was there, a
messenger arrived post-haste from Rome, commanding his immediate
return. He is now once more at home there, and as well as the
troublous circumstances of the times permit.

Later on he told Vasari: "I have recently enjoyed a great pleasure,
though purchased at the cost of great discomfort and expense, among
the mountains of Spoleto, on a visit to those hermits. Consequently, I
have come back less than half myself to Rome; for of a truth there is
no peace to be found except among the woods." This is the only passage
in the whole of Michelangelo's correspondence which betrays the least
feeling for wild nature. We cannot pretend, even here, to detect an
interest in landscape or a true appreciation of country life. Compared
with Rome and the Duke of Alva, those hermitages of the hills among
their chestnut groves seemed to him haunts of ancient peace. That is
all; but when dealing with a man so sternly insensible to the charm of
the external world, we have to be contented with a little.

In connection with this brief sojourn at Spoleto I will introduce two
letters written to Michelangelo by the Archbishop of Ragusa from his
See. The first is dated March 28, 1557. and was sent to Spoleto,
probably under the impression that Buonarroti had not yet returned to
Rome. After lamenting the unsettled state of public affairs, the
Archbishop adds: "Keep well in your bodily health; as for that of your
soul, I am sure you cannot be ill, knowing what prudence and piety
keep you in perpetual companionship." The second followed at the
interval of a year, April 6, 1558. and gave a pathetic picture of the
meek old prelate's discomfort in his Dalmatian bishopric. He calls
Ragusa "this exceedingly ill-cultivated vineyard of mine. Oftentimes
does the carnal man in me revolt and yearn for Italy, for relatives
and friends; but the spirit keeps desire in check, and compels it to
be satisfied with that which is the pleasure of our Lord." Though the
biographical importance of these extracts is but slight, I am glad,
while recording the outlines of Buonarroti's character, to cast a
side-light on his amiable qualities, and to show how highly valued he
was by persons of the purest life.

IX

There was nothing peculiarly severe about the infirmities of
Michelangelo's old age. We first hear of the dysuria from which he
suffered, in 1548. He writes to Lionar