ccidental. But it is strange.

X

We have frequently had occasion to notice the extreme pain caused to
Michelangelo's friends by his unreasonable irritability and readiness
to credit injurious reports about them. These defects of temper
justified to some extent his reputation for savagery, and they must be
reckoned among the most salient features of his personality. I shall
therefore add three other instances of the same kind which fell under
my observation while studying the inedited documents of the Buonarroti
Archives. Giovanni Francesco Fattucci was, as we well know, his most
intimate friend and trusted counsellor during long and difficult
years, when the negotiations with the heirs of Pope Julius were being
carried on; yet there exists one letter of unaffected sorrow from this
excellent man, under date October 14, 1545, which shows that for some
unaccountable reason Michelangelo had suddenly chosen to mistrust him.
Fattucci begins by declaring that he is wholly guiltless of things
which his friend too credulously believed upon the strength of gossip.
He expresses the deepest grief at this unjust and suspicious
treatment. The letter shows him to have been more hurt than resentful.
Another document signed by Francesco Sangallo (the son of his old
friend Giuliano), bearing no date, but obviously written when they
were both in Florence, and therefore before the year 1535, carries the
same burden of complaint. The details are sufficiently picturesque to
warrant the translation of a passage. After expressing astonishment at
Michelangelo's habit of avoiding his society, he proceeds: "And now,
this morning, not thinking that I should annoy you, I came up and
spoke to you, and you received me with a very surly countenance. That
evening, too, when I met you on the threshold with Granacci, and you
left me by the shop of Pietro Osaio, and the other forenoon at S.
Spirito, and to-day, it struck me as extremely strange, especially in
the presence of Piloto and so many others. I cannot help thinking that
you must have some grudge against me; but I marvel that you do not
open out your mind to me, because it may be something which is wholly
false." The letter winds up with an earnest protest that he has always
been a true and faithful friend. He begs to be allowed to come and
clear the matter up in conversation, adding that he would rather lose
the good-will of the whole world than Michelangelo's.

The third letter is somewhat