e. And I am surest of all, that let them have
been given by whom they may, there was not the smallest chance of
their being obeyed. As for the Duke himself, I am very sure that he
would have given or even done much to prevent any such catastrophe.

But perhaps the most remarkable and most singular scene of all that
rose-water revolution was the Duke's departure from his capital and
his duchy. Other sovereigns in similar plight have hidden themselves,
travestied themselves, had hairbreadth escapes, or have not escaped at
all. In Tuscany the fallen ruler went forth in his own carriage with
one other following it, both rather heavily laden with luggage. The
San Gallo gate is that by which the hearse that conveys the day's dead
to the cemetery on the slope of the Apennine leaves the city every
night. And the Duke passed amid the large crowd assembled at the gate
to see him go, as peaceably as the vehicle conveying those whose days
in Florence, like his, were at an end, went out a few hours later by
the same road.

CHAPTER XIII.

Among the very great number of men and women whom I have known during
my life in Italy--some merely acquaintances, and many whom I knew
to be, and a few, alas! a very few, whom I still know to be trusty
friends--there were many of whom the world has heard, and some perhaps
of whom it would not unwillingly hear something more. But time and
space are limited, and I must select as best I may.

I have a very pleasant recollection of "Garibaldi's Englishman,"
Colonel Peard. Peard had many more qualities and capabilities than
such as are essential to a soldier of fortune. The phrase, however, is
perhaps not exactly that which should be used to characterise him. He
had qualities which the true soldier of fortune should not possess.
His partisanship was with him in the highest degree a matter of
conviction and conscientious opinion, and _nothing_ would have tempted
him to change his colours or draw his sword on the other side. I am
not sure either, whether a larger amount of native brain power, and
(in a much greater degree) a higher quality of culture, than that of
the general under whom it may be his fortune to serve, is a good part
of the equipment of a soldier of fortune. And Peard's relation to
Garibaldi very notably exemplified this.

He was a native of Devonshire, as was my first wife; we saw a good
deal of him in Florence, and I have before me a letter written to her
by him from Naples