San Giovanni, or Fortezza da Basso, as it was popularly called, in
contradistinction from another fort on the high ground above the
Boboli Gardens. And it was expected that on these occasions the
sovereign should address a few words to his soldiers. So the Duke,
resting his person first on one leg and then on the other, after his
fashion, stood in front of the two or three score of men drawn up
in line before him, and after telling them that obedience to their
officers and attachment to duty were the especial virtues of a
soldier, he continued, "Above all, my men, I desire that you should
remember the duties and observances of our holy religion, and--and--"
(here, having said all he had to say, His Highness was at a loss for
a conclusion to his harangue. But looking down on the ground as he
strove to find a fitting peroration, he observed that the army's shoes
were sadly in want of the blacking brush, so he concluded with more of
animation and significance than he had before evinced) "and keep your
shoes clean!"

I may find room further on to say a few words of what I remember of
the revolution which dethroned poor _gran ciuco_. But I may as well
conclude here what I have to say of him by relating the manner of his
final exit from the soil of Tuscany, of which the malicious among the
few who knew the circumstances were wont to say--very unjustly--that
nothing in his reign became him like the leaving of it. I saw him pass
out from the Porta San Gallo on his way to Bologna among a crowd of
his late subjects, who all lifted their hats, though not without some
satirical cries of "_Addio, sai" "Buon viaggio_!" But a few, a very
few, friends accompanied his carriage to the papal frontier, an
invisible line on the bleak Apennines, unmarked by any habitation.
There he descended from his carriage to receive their last adieus, and
there was much lowly bowing as they stood on the highway. The Duke,