His little grandson, Lionardo, the sole male heir of the family, was with him.

Born September 25, 1519, the boy was now exactly eleven years old, and by his father's death in 1528 he had been two years an orphan.

Lionardo was ailing, and the old man wearied to return.

His two sons, Gismondo and Giansimone, had promised to fetch him home when the country should be safe for travelling.

But they delayed; and at last, upon the 30th of September, Lodovico wrote as follows to Michelangelo: "Some time since I directed a letter to Gismondo, from whom you have probably learned that I am staying here, and, indeed, too long; for the flight of Buonarroto's pure soul to heaven, and my own need and earnest desire to come home, and Nardo's state of health, all makes me restless.