When I saw him I said that I did
not think it right and seemly for him to be going about in such weather.
'What do you want?' he answered; 'I am ill, and cannot find rest
anywhere!' The uncertainty of his speech, with the look and colour of his
face, made me extremely uneasy about his life. The end may not be just
now, but I fear greatly that it cannot be far off." The gray colour and
the uneasiness of an old man who has suffered a slight stroke are
evidently indicated here. During the next four days he lived in his
arm-chair. On the 15th, Diomede Leoni wrote to Lionardo, with a letter
enclosed, signed by Michael Angelo but written by Daniele da
Volterra.(183) After exhorting Lionardo to come to Rome, but to run no
risks by travelling too fast, he adds, "as you may be certain Messer
Tomaso dei Cavalieri, Messer Daniele, and I will not fail during your
absence in every possible service in your place. Besides, Antonio, the old
and faithful servant of the master, will give a good account of himself
under any circumstances. ... If the illness of the master be dangerous,
which God forbid, you could not be in time to find him alive, even if you
could make more haste than is possible. But to give you a little account
of the state of Messere up to this hour, which is the third of the
night,(184) I inform you that just now I left him quite composed and fully
conscious, but oppressed with continual drowsiness. In order to shake it
off, between twenty-two and twenty-three,(185) this very day he tried to
mount his horse and go for a ride, as he was wont to do every evening in
good weather, but the coolness of the season and the weakness of his head
and legs prevented him, so he went back to his seat a little way from the
fire.
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