time with the cartoon of _The Last Judgment_. But Clement VII. was not a
man to be put off with words; he supervised the work in person, and
Buonarroti was obliged to pass continually from the chisel to the pencil
and from the pen to the mallet. _The Last Judgment!_ _Moses!_ these are
two works of little importance and easy to do off-hand! And yet he had
to. His Holiness would not listen to reason.

One day it was announced to Michael Angelo that he would not receive his
accustomed visit: Clement VII. was dead. The artist breathed freely just
during the Conclave.

The new Pope, Paul III., had nothing more pressing to do than to present
himself in Buonarroti's studio, followed pompously by ten cardinals. The
newly-elected Pope was easily recognized there!

[Illustration: THE LAST JUDGMENT.
_Michael Angelo_.]

"Ah!" said the Holy Father, in a tone of firm decision, "I hope that
henceforth the whole of your time will belong to me, Maestro
Buonarroti."

"May your Holiness deign to excuse me," replied Michael Angelo, "but I
have just signed an engagement with the Duke of Urbino, which forces me
to finish the tomb of Pope Julius."

"What!" exclaimed Paul III.: "for thirty years I have had a certain wish
and now that I am Pope I cannot realize it!"

"But the contract, Holy Father, the contract!"