Weeks passed and the painting was almost finished. The huge wall was covered with plunging horses and embattled soldiers. The colors were brilliant on the special mixture he had prepared for the wall—but they were not drying as they should have. Something was wrong. To speed the drying process, Leonardo had a special fire built in the room that directed the heat onto the painting. Spectators were allowed to watch as the waves of hot air rose against the wall. Then—disaster began slowly with a small trickle of paint from the top! Before anybody could put out the fire, the great figures and horses slowly melted down the wall in shiny, sticky streaks of color. Leonardo fled the room in an agony of shame. With his own friends discouraged, the Signoria hostile, and the friends of Michelangelo triumphant, Leonardo went back to Fiesole. He went back with his secret dream of flight. The world would soon forget the Battle of Anghiari—but the conquest of the air, if he could achieve it, would live forever. In the spring of 1506, from the slopes of Monte Cecero near Fiesole, legend tells us that a great bird sailed into the air and disappeared. No one knows whether Leonardo actually flew his machine or not but Girolamo Cardano, the son of a friend of Leonardo, wrote, long after Leonardo had died, “Leonardo da Vinci also attempted to fly, but he failed. He was a fine painter.” Another dream had been shattered. 11 _The Return to Milan_ Leonardo felt his fifty-four years that spring day in 1506. The bitterness of his failures and the frustration of his dreams added considerably to the weight of his years. All morning he had wasted in argument with Soderini and the Signoria. If it had not been for the letter from Charles d’Amboise, Viceroy of the King of France for Milan, he would have felt like a beggar. Charles d’Amboise had been appointed military governor of Milan by Louis XII ever since the French had conquered that city and captured Duke Ludovico Sforza. But the authority of the letter had finally won a grudging consent from Soderini. Leonardo looked about him to see if he had forgotten anything and slowly climbed onto his horse. He nodded to Salai, his apprentice, looked back to see if his servant had the pack-horses ready, and started down the street leading the small procession. He was going back to Milan.