He would present everybody and anybody who had been presented at home, and nobody who had not been so presented.

And he commenced his administration on these lines, and the Grand Duke's receptions at the Pitti became notably weeded.

But this had not gone, on for more than two or three weeks before it was whispered in the minister's ear that the Grand Duke would be pleased if he were less strict in the matter of his presentations.

"Oh!" said Hamilton, "that's what he wants! _A la bonne heure!_ He shall have them all, rag, tag, and bobtail." And so we returned to the _Saturnia regna_ of "the good old times," and the Duke was credibly reported to have said that he "kept the worst drawing-room in Europe." But, of course, His Highness was thinking of the pockets of his liege Florentine letters of apartments and tradesmen, and was anxious only to make his city a favourite place of resort for the gold-bringing foreigners from that distant and barbarous western isle.

The Pope, you see, had the pull in the matter of gorgeous Church ceremonies, but he couldn't have the fertilising barbarians dancing in the Vatican once a week! One more anecdote I must find room for, because it is curiously illustrative in several ways of those _tempi passati, che non tornano piu_.