Now that I have begun to raise it up a little, you only, you alone, choose to destroy and bring to ruin in one hour what it has cost me so many years and such labour to build up.

By Christ's body this shall not be; for I am the man to put to the rout ten thousand of your sort, whenever it be needed.

Be wise in time, then, and do not try the patience of one who has other things to vex him." Even Buonarroto, who was the best of the brothers and dearest to his heart, hurt him by his graspingness and want of truth.

He had been staying at Rome on a visit, and when he returned to Florence it appears that he bragged about his wealth, as if the sums expended on the Buonarroti farms were not part of Michelangelo's earnings.

The consequence was that he received a stinging rebuke from his elder brother.