cellor, and indeed gave him all his confidence, so that his
influence was very great with a man who must have been easily influenced
by his friends. Seeing his power, others about the Emperor, remembering
Piero's low condition, no doubt sought to ruin him; and, as it seems, at
last in this they were successful, forging letters to prove that the
chancellor trafficked with the Pope. It was a time of danger for
Frederick; he was easily persuaded of Piero's guilt, and having put out
his eyes, he imprisoned him. Driven to despair at the loss of that fair
world, Piero dashed his head against the walls of his prison, and so
died. Dante meets him among the suicides in the seventh circle of the
Inferno.

But the Rocca of S. Miniato, as it is said, having brought death to a
poet and housed many Emperors, gave birth at last to the greatest
soldier of the fifteenth century, Francesco Sforza himself, he who made
himself Duke of Milan and whose statue Leonardo set himself to make, on
which the poets carved _Ecce Deus_. A mere fort, perhaps, in its origin,
in the days of Federigo II the Rocca must have been of considerable
strength, size, and luxury, dominating as it did the road to Florence
and the way to Rome: and then even in its early days it was a
stronghold of the German foreigner from which he dominated the Latins
round about, and not least the people of S. Miniato. Like all the
Tuscans, they could not bear the yoke, and they fled into the valley to
S. Genesio: soon to return, however, for the people of the plain liked
them as little as he of the tower. This exodus is, as it were,
commemorated in the dedication of the Duomo to S. Maria e a S. Genesio.
The church is not very interesting; some fragments of the old pulpit or
_ambone_, where you may see in relief the Annunciation and a coat of
arms with a boar and an inscription, are of the thirteenth century. It
is, however, in S. Domenico, not far away, that what remains to S.
Miniato of her art treasures will be found. Everyone seems to call the
church S. Domenico, but in truth it belongs to S. Jacopo and S. Lucia.
As in many another Tuscan city, it guards one side of S. Miniato, while
S. Francesco watches on the other, as though to befriend all who may
pass by. S. Domenico was founded in 1330, but it has suffered much since
then. The chapels, built by the greatest families of the place, in part
remain beautiful with the fourteenth-century work of the school of Gaddi
and of some