but that is hardly important. Thereafter the Duke is breaking no law,
for the large reason that his preference in any matter is the only law
thus far divulged to him. As concerns the man and the girl he discovers on
this hill-top, they, in common with all else in Tuscany, are possessions
of Duke Alessandro's. They can raise no question as to how he "ought" to
deal with them, for to your chattels, whether they be your finger rings or
your subjects or your pomatum pots or the fair quires whereon you indite
your verses, you cannot rationally he said to "owe" anything.... No, the
Duke is but a spirited lad in quest of amusement: and Guido and Graciosa
are the playthings with which, on this fine sunlit morning, he attempts to
divert himself.

This much being granted--and confessed,--we let the play begin.

_Dumbarton Grange,_
_June, 1921_


* * * * *

["Alessandro de Medici is generally styled by the Italian authors the
first duke of Florence; but in this they are not strictly accurate. His
title of duke was derived from Citta, or Civita di Penna, and had been
assumed by him several years before he obtained the direction of the
Florentine state. It must also be observed, that, after the evasion of
Eglamore, Duke Alessandro did not, as Robertson observes, 'enjoy the
same absolute dominion as his family have retained to the present times,'
(Hist. Charles V. book v.) he being only declared chief or prince of the
republic, and his authority being in some measure counteracted or
restrained by two councils chosen from the citizens, for life, one of