Dearest Uncle,--On Saturday last the 7th I wrote in answer to your letter giving you full accounts of our private affairs, of the house, and of everything, which I conclude you received. Giannotto was too busy to write, and probably will not even have time to-day, being so occupied with that business you know of; it is in danger in consequence of the sad event of which you have heard. I did not write to you before on account of the universal grief and tribulation, so that not only writing but even thinking about it was difficult. It is true that on Saturday I wrote you word that the Magnificent Lorenzo was at Careggi for change of air, not well, and in pain it was said. In the evening after my letter had gone it was reported that he had a slight fainting fit, but no one was alarmed, chiefly because of that accursed Maestro Piero Leoni of Spoleto, who to the very last insisted that he could not die of that malady. On Saturday arrived the doctor from Milan, who at once saw that he had been wrongly treated, and prepared many remedies, but it was too late. He ought to have had cold things and he was given hot. Finally on Sunday, after the fourth hour of night, according to the will of Him who rules the world, he quitted this life in the flower of his age, and most assuredly far too soon, to the great and bitter sorrow of the whole city; and with every reason, for no doubt we have lost the splendour not only of Tuscany but of all Italy. Every day we shall learn more what we have lost. As yet it cannot be calculated, but time will show. The other terrible event is the insane death of Maestro Piero Leoni, who when he saw his lying science had deceived him, which some say was allied to necromancy, went out of his mind, and was taken to the house of the Martelli near by, that is to say at S. Gervasio, where he was well treated, and passed the night full of melancholy and without speaking or answering any one. In the early morning he called for a towel and washed his face at a well, and asked a peasant how deep the water was. He was left leaning against the edge, and a short time afterwards a woman went to draw water, and found him head downwards in the well; half of his body was above water. She gave the alarm, and then was seen the miserable end of a man of such erudition who had used his science ill. This created a great stir among the people who were already much troubled by what had happened. But when it was proved that madness alone had impelled the deed accusations made by idle tongues ceased, and people said it served him right that he should have taken his own life. There was no bruise or hurt on the handsome body, and to those who saw, it was a sad spectacle. For a day it lay there by the well, and was then buried in a field like those who elect to die thus.