coaches of the Spanish nobility, and carried me to mass at the Cathedral,
where I saw thirty or forty ladies of quality of more than common charms;
and, to speak the truth, the women there in general are of rare beauty,
having a graceful tincture both of the lily and the rose, and wear a
head-dress which is exceedingly pretty. The Governor, after having
treated me with a magnificent dinner under a tent of gold brocade near
the seaside, carried me to a concert of music in a convent, where I found
the nuns not inferior in beauty to the ladies of the town. The Governor
carried me to see his lady, who was as ugly as a witch, and was seated
under a great canopy sparkling with precious stones, which gave a
wonderful lustre to about sixty ladies with her, who were the handsomest
in the whole town. I was reconducted on board my galley with music and a
discharge of the artillery, and sailed to Port Mahon, and thence through
the Gulf of Lyons to the canal between Corsica and Sardinia, where our
ship was very nearly cast away upon a sandbank; but with great difficulty
we got her off and reached Porto Longone. There we quitted the galley,
and went by land to Piombino.

BOOK V.

I travelled from Piombino to Florence, where I had great honours and vast
offers from the Grand Duke, though Mazarin had threatened him, in the
King's name, with a rupture if he granted me passage through his
dominions; but the Grand Duke sent to desire the Cardinal to let him know
whether there was any possibility of refusing it without disobliging the
Pope and the Sacred College. As I was travelling through the Duke's
country, my mules, being frightened by a clap of thunder, ran with my
litter into a brook, where I narrowly escaped being drowned.

As soon as I arrived at Rome the Pope sent me 4,000 crowns in gold. I
was immediately informed that a strong faction was formed there against
me by the Court of France; that the Cardinal d'Est, representative of
that nation, had terrible orders from the King; and that they were
resolved to send me packing from Rome, cost what it would. I had my old
scruples upon me, and said I would die a thousand deaths rather than make
resistance; but I thought it would be too disrespectful in a cardinal to
come so near the Pope and to go away without kissing his feet, and I
resolved to leave the rest to the providence of God.

The Pope having ordered his guards to be ready, in case the French
faction should