church in honor of the gentle Christ, the artist was called upon to build
barricades to protect his native city. His ingenuity as an engineer was
as consummate as his exquisite idea of harmony, and for nine months the
city was defended.

Through treachery the enemy was then allowed to enter and Michelangelo
fled. Riots and wars seem as natural as thunderstorms to the Latin
people; but after a year the clouds rolled by, Michelangelo was pardoned,
and went back to his work of beautifying the chapel of San Lorenzo.

In Fifteen Hundred Thirty-four, Pope Clement was succeeded by Paul the
Third. Paul was seventy years old, but the vigor of his mind was very
much like that of the great Julius. His first desire was to complete the
decoration of the Sistine Chapel, so that the entire interior should
match the magnificence of the ceiling, and to the task he summoned
Michelangelo.

The great artist hesitated. The ceiling was his supreme work as a
painter, and he knew down deep in his heart that he could not hope to
surpass it, and the risk of not equaling it was too great for him to run.
The matter was too delicately personal to explain--only an artist could
understand.

Michelangelo made excuses to the Pope and declared he had forgotten how
to use a brush, that his eyesight was bad, and that the only thing he
could do was to carve.

But Paul was not to be turned aside, and reluctantly Michelangelo went
back to the Sistine, that he had left over twenty years before.