with Michelangelo and upon equal terms, which did not seem incredible
considering their association in a single bedroom. Beside this, he
intrigued and cheated in money matters. The master felt that he must
get rid of him, and send the fellow back to Florence. Lapo, not
choosing to go alone, lest the truth of the affair should be apparent,
persuaded Lodovico to join him; and when they reached home, both began
to calumniate their master. Michelangelo, knowing that they were
likely to do so, wrote to his brother Buonarroto on the 1st of
February 1507: "I inform you further how on Friday morning I sent away
Lapo and Lodovico, who were in my service. Lapo, because he is good
for nothing and a rogue, and could not serve me. Lodovico is better,
and I should have been willing to keep him another two months, but
Lapo, in order to prevent blame falling on himself alone, worked upon
the other so that both went away together. I write you this, not that
I regard them, for they are not worth three farthings, the pair of
them, but because if they come to talk to Lodovico (Buonarroti) he
must not be surprised at what they say. Tell him by no means to lend
them his ears; and if you want to be informed about them, go to Messer
Angelo, the herald of the Signory; for I have written the whole story
to him, and he will, out of his kindly feeling, tell you just what
happened."

In spite of these precautions, Lapo seems to have gained the ear of
Michelangelo's father, who wrote a scolding letter in his usual
puzzle-headed way. Michelangelo replied in a tone of real and ironical
humility, which is exceedingly characteristic: "Most revered father, I
have received a letter from you to-day, from which I learn that you
have been informed by Lapo and Lodovico. I am glad that you should
rebuke me, because I deserve to be rebuked as a ne'er-do-well and
sinner as much as any one, or perhaps more. But you must know that I
have not been guilty in the affair for which you take me to task now,
neither as regards them nor any one else, except it be in doing more
than was my duty." After this exordium he proceeds to give an
elaborate explanation of his dealings with Lapo, and the man's
roguery.

The correspondence with Buonarroto turns to a considerable extent upon
a sword-hilt which Michelangelo designed for the Florentine, Pietro
Aldobrandini. It was the custom then for gentlemen to carry swords and
daggers with hilt and scabbard wonderfully wrought by f