her
they had brought nothing but a pall of velvet, all bordered and
embroidered in gold, which covered the coffin and the whole bier; upon
which coffin was an image of Christ Crucified. Then, about the middle
hour of the night, all having gathered around the body, all at once
the oldest and most eminent craftsmen laid their hands on a great
quantity of torches that had been carried there, and the younger men
took up the bier with such eagerness, that blessed was he who could
approach it and place his shoulders under it, believing as it were
that in the time to come they would be able to claim the glory of
having borne the remains of the greatest man that there had ever been
in their arts. The sight of a certain number of persons assembled
about S. Pietro had caused, as always happens in such cases, many
others to stop there, and the rather as it had been trumpeted abroad
that the body of Michelagnolo had arrived, and was to be carried to S.
Croce. And although, as I have said, every precaution had been taken
that the matter should not become known, lest the report might spread
through the city, and there might flock thither such a multitude that
it would not be possible to avoid a certain degree of tumult and
confusion, and also because they desired that the little which they
wished to do at that time should be done with more quiet than pomp,
reserving the rest for a more convenient time with greater leisure;
nevertheless, both the one thing and the other took a contrary course,
for with regard to the multitude, the news, as has been related,
passing from lip to lip, in the twinkling of an eye the church was so
filled, that in the end it was with the greatest difficulty that the
body was carried from the church to the sacristy, in order to take it
out of the bale and then place it in the sepulchre. With regard to the
question of honour, although it cannot be denied that to see in
funeral pomps a great show of priests, a large quantity of wax tapers,
and a great number of mourners dressed in black, is a thing of grand
and magnificent appearance, it does not follow that it was not also a
great thing to see thus assembled in a small company, without
preparation, all those eminent men who are now in such repute, and who
will be even more in the future, honouring that body with such loving
and affectionate offices. And, in truth, the number of such craftsmen
in Florence--and they were all there--has always been very great, fo