and vases are no longer standing to recall the pageantry of those days. At the top of the garden a big grotto has been scooped out beneath the upper terrace, which Francesco Maria, no doubt remembering for a brief moment his title of Cardinal, caused to be ornamented with terra-cotta bas-reliefs illustrating such scenes as Moses before the burning bush, while a huge statue of St Mark with his lion seated above a pool of water, might easily be mistaken by a casual observer for a Neptune rising from the sea with his dolphin. From the loggia of the house one enters a finely proportioned room, decorated with charming frescoes of landscapes seen through arches, where pheasants strut on terraced walks, while a statue of Venus looks down upon a lake, all faintly painted and with a dim distance which gives to the room that great idea of space which the Italians of the eighteenth century so well knew how to render. We sat here one rainy day reading of the gay doings of Cardinal Francesco Maria, and as we saw the rents in the walls made by the earthquake, and recalled the bargain between the Cardinal and his architect, we wondered that the villa should have stood so long.[35] FOOTNOTES: [32] A new-born babe was smuggled into the Pitti Palace in a lute and presented to the Grand Duke by Bianca Cappello as his child; Francesco I bought for him the estate of Capistrano in the Abruzzi which carried the title of Prince with it, and left him also large property by will. The real mother was murdered, as soon as she had given up her child, by the orders of Bianca. [33] When travelling in Italy as crown prince in 1691, Frederick fell in love with Maddalena Trenta, daughter of a gentleman at Lucca; and being at Venice for the carnival in 1709 he could not resist going to Florence in order to see once more the woman he had loved so passionately. After his departure she had sought refuge and consolation in the convent of Santa Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi, and he obtained a special dispensation to pay visits to the still beautiful nun, who they say tried to convert him. [34] Taken from a manuscript (No 893 in the MSS. Moreniani). “Relazione di tutti le Cerimonie, Trattamenti, Feste e Trattenimenti seguiti in Firenze l’anno 1708 in 1709, nella venuta di Federigo IV, Re di Danimarca e Norvegia.” [35] For the account of Lappeggi in the days of the Cardinal Francesco Maria de’ Medici, I am chiefly indebted to a rare pamphlet by Signor G. Palagi, _La Villa di Lappeggi e il Poeta Gio. Batt. Fagiuoli_. Firenze, Succ. Le Monnier 1876. [Illustration: VILLA DELLA PETRAJA] [Illustration: (Drawing of the view from garden to the Villa.)] VILLA DELLA PETRAJA