Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/297

Rh Tuscany and other parts of Italy, the king admired them greatly. Nay, furthermore, his majesty rewarded the master with large gifts, and ordained him a stipend of four hundred crowns a year, giving him at the same time opportunity and permission to erect an honourable abode for himself, the cost of which was borne by the king.

Thus exalted from the extremity of disappointment to a great height of fortune, Girolamo lived most happily and in the utmost content, thanking God and his destiny for having permitted him to reach a country where the inhabitants were so favourably inclined towards him. But this unwonted felicity was not suffered to endure; a furious war raged at that time between the French and English, and it became the duty of Girolamo to provide for the erection of bastions and all other things required for completing the fortifications, he had also to take measures for the efficiency of the artillery and for the defences of the camp. Thus occupied, he was one day superintending the preparation of batteries around the city of Boulogne in Picardy, when he was struck by a cannon ball, which came with such violence that it cut him in two as he sat on his horse. And so were his life and all the honours of this world extinguished together, all his greatness departing in a moment. Girolamo thus expired at the age of thirty-six and in the year 1544.