es to interfere with
us?" etc. Now, this was a little too much, even for Florence. And a
day or two afterward the old original Stenterello was ordered to go to
prison. Nobody was ever _arrested_, as we should call it, or _taken_
to prison. A man who for any cause was to suffer imprisonment used to
be told to _go_ to prison. Stenterello told the officer who announced
his doom that it was out of the question that he should go just then:
he had to appear on the boards that night. This was deemed to be a
just impediment, and he was told to go next day. The next day was a
"festa:" of course a sufficient reason for putting off everything. The
day after, on presenting himself at the prison-door, the actor was
told that the governor of the prison was out of Florence, and he must
"call again" in a few days. When the governor returned, Stenterello
was indisposed for a few days. When he got well the governor was
indisposed, and when _he_ got well there was another "festa;" and when
at last the offending actor did apply to the prison official to be
imprisoned, he was told there was no room for him. Long before that
the higher authorities had totally forgotten all about the matter.
That was the way things were done in Tuscany in the good old time.

The more serious faults with which Leopold II. was chargeable were due
to the narrowness of his religious bigotry, and, in the difficult and
trying circumstances of the latter years of his reign, the lack of the
courage needed to enable him to be truthful and to keep faith with his
people. When the frightened and fickle pope ran away from Rome, strong
influences were brought to bear on the grand duke of Tuscany to induce
him to refrain from following the example and to ally himself with
Piedmont. His confessor of course took the opposite side, and strove
with every weapon he could bring to bear on his Serene penitent to
induce him to throw in his lot with the pope. At last the invisible
world had to be appealed to. Saint Philomena, who had been a special
object of the devotion of the grand ducal family, took to appearing to
the confessor, and expressing her earnest hope that her devotee would
not risk the salvation of a soul in which she took so tender an
interest by refusing to follow the path marked out for him by the Holy
Father. The saint became very importunate upon the subject, and each
one of her celestial visitations was duly reported to the grand duke,
and made the occasion of fr