Whether God or the devil was the man, I do not know.
"Pray answer the questions in this letter as soon as possible, because I am burning with impatience to set out.

If you have changed your mind, and do not care to go, still let me know, so that I may provide as best I can for my own journey." What appears manifest from this document is that Michelangelo was decoyed away from Florence by some one, who, acting on his sensitive nervous temperament, persuaded him that his life was in danger.

Who the man was we do not know, but he must have been a person delegated by those who had a direct interest in removing Buonarroti from the place.

If the controller-general of the defences already scented treason in the air, and was communicating his suspicions to the Signory, Malatesta Baglioni, the archtraitor, who afterwards delivered Florence over for a price to Clement, could not but have wished to frighten him away.
From another of Michelangelo's letters we learn that he carried 3000 ducats in specie with him on the journey.

It is unlikely that he could have disposed so much cash upon his person.