rally much
more moved by the sight of the two canes preserved in Casa Buonarotti,
upon which the great master in his latter days supported his tottering
frame, than they are by the noblest achievements of his genius.

The Carnival in Florence was a meagre affair compared with the same fete
in Rome. During the afternoon, however, there was goodly procession of
masks in carriages on the Lung' Arno, and in the evening there was a
feeble _moccoletti_ display. The grand masked ball at the Casino about
this time presents an irresistible attraction to the floating population
in Florence. I was foolish enough to go. All were obliged to be dressed
in character or in full ball-costume: no dominoes allowed. The Casino, I
was told, is the largest club-house in the world; and salon after salon
of that immense building was so crowded that locomotion was nearly
impossible. The floral decorations were magnificent, the music was
excellent, and some of the ten thousand people present tried to dance,
but the sets formed were soon squeezed into a ball. Then they gave up in
despair, while the men swore under their breath, and the women repaired
to the dressing-rooms to sew on flounces or other skirt-trimmings. Masks
wriggled about, and spoke to each other in the ridiculously squeaky
voice generally adopted on such occasions. Most of their conversation
was English, and of this very exciting order: "You don't know me?" "Yes
I do." "No you don't." "I know what you did yesterday," etc., etc., _ad
nauseam._ How fine masked balls are in sensational novels! how
absolutely flat and unsatisfactory in fact! There was on this occasion a
vast display of dress and jewelry, and among the babel of languages
spoken the most prominent was the beautiful London dialect sometimes
irreverently called Cockney. I lost my cavalier at one time, and while I
waited for him to find me I retired to a corner and challenged a mask to
a game of chess. He proved to be a Russian who spoke neither French nor
Italian. We got along famously, however. He said something very polite
in Russian, I responded irrelevantly in French, and then we looked at
each other and grinned. He subsequently, thinking he had made an
impression, ventured to press my hand; I drew it away and told him he
was an idiot, at which he was greatly flattered; and then we grinned at
each other again. It was very exciting indeed. I won the game easily,
because he knew nothing of chess, and then he said somethi