THE COLOSSAL BRONZE FOR THE FACADE OF SAN PETRONIO XXXII.

So he arrived at Bologna one morning, and going to San Petronio to hear mass,( 39) behold, the grooms of the Pope, who recognised him and conducted him to his Holiness, who was at table in the Palazzo de' Sedici.
When he saw Michael Angelo in his presence, Julius, with an angry look, said to him, "_You ought to have come to us, and you have waited for us to come to you_." Meaning to say, that his Holiness being come to Bologna, a place much nearer to Florence than Rome is, it was as if he (the Pope) had come to him.

Michael Angelo with a loud voice and on his knees craved pardon, pleading that he had not erred maliciously but through indignation, for he could not bear to be hunted away as he had been.

The Pope kept his head lowered and replied nothing, to all appearances much troubled, when a certain monsignore, sent by the Cardinal Soderini to excuse and intercede for Michael Angelo, broke in, saying: "_Your Holiness, do not remember his fault, for he has erred through ignorance; these painters in things outside their art are all like this._" The Pope indignantly replied: "_You __abuse him, whilst we say nothing; you are the ignorant one, and he is not the culprit; take yourself off in an evil hour._" But as he was not going, he was, as Michael Angelo used to tell, hustled out of the room with blows by the servants of the Pope.

Thus the Pope having spent his fury on the bishop, called Michael Angelo closer to him, and pardoned him, ordering him not to leave Bologna until another commission had been given to him.