The disastrous retreat of the Grande Armée from Moscow was followed by General Nugent’s proclamation to the Italian people, promulgated at Ravenna on the 10th December, 1813, and the advance of the Neapolitan troops under Murat, who appeared at the gates of Florence on the 13th January, 1814. He was received with shouts of joy by the populace, who rushed to the Palazzo Pitti, and would have forced an entrance but for the intervention of the Syndic. Like the Queen of Etruria, the Grand Duchess had to fly, but her escort were forced to draw their swords to protect her from the mob. In September Ferdinando III. re-entered Florence, to the joy of the Tuscans, sick to death of foreign rulers, who hoped for a period of peace and quiet under a prince born in the Pitti palace, whom they regarded as a Florentine. In 1818 he bought so many pictures at the Gerini sale that another room, the Hall of the Iliad, frescoed by Sabatelli, was added to the great Pitti gallery. In 1824 he was succeeded by his son, Leopoldo II., under whose reign the architect P. Poccianti made great changes in the palace. Various small rooms were conveted into the fine atrium, or entrance hall, leading into Ammannati’s superb courtyard, and at an enormous expense the great staircase was built, in lieu of the old, narrow, steep one.[59] The superb gallery was thrown open to the public on Sundays and holidays in 1833. Leopoldo was incapable of grasping the new ideas then surging throughout Italy. Too late he was induced to grant a free constitution, revolution burst out in Florence, the Republic was proclaimed, and in 1839 the Grand Duke fled, only to be reinstated a few months later. Nine miserable years of foreign occupation followed, until in 1848 Leopoldo quitted the Pitti palace by the side gate of the Boboli gardens. Driving out of the Porta Romana, and round the city walls to the Porta San Gallo, he went on his way to Vienna. Not a hat was raised as the hated Austrian passed; in dead silence carriages and escort went by at full gallop, as though afraid of hostile demonstrations. Very different was the scene on the 16th April, 1860, when King Victor Emanuel entered Florence amid such enthusiasm as has seldom been seen. The closing words of his speech to the parliament a fortnight before had struck a chord which vibrated in every heart. “La patria, la quale non è piu l’Italia dei Romani, nè quella del Medio Evo; non deve essere piu il campo aperto delle ambizione straniere, ma deve esere bensì l’Italia degl’Italiani.” PALAZZO DEL PODESTÀ (BARGELLO) _Via Ghibellina._