The Duke of Florence treats with courtesy the nobles who are in our interest, and keeps about his person Silvio Piccolomini, a gentleman who is better endowed than any other of our day in all sorts of science and in the practice of arms.[63] The duke being chiefly concerned in guarding himself from his own subjects, leaves to his various cities the duty of fortifying themselves, but keeps a hold on the citadels, which are provisioned and guarded with great outlay of money and labour, and with such watchful suspicion that few people are allowed to approach them. The women mostly wear bonnets, and we marked some who, by way of reverence, removed their headgear like the men at the moment of the elevation of the Host. We found lodging at the “Crown,”[64] which was fairly good, but we had no glass or even linen windows. M. de Montaigne, when he was asked by the house-steward at Pratellino whether he was not amazed at the beauty of the place, replied, after certain words of praise, that he was greatly offended by the ill-seeming of the doors and windows, and of the great pinewood tables, without shape or ornament; with the rude and insecure locks, like those used in our villages, and with the roofs of hollow tiles. Moreover, he declared that, if it were found impossible to conceal these tiles by the use of slate or lead or brass, they might at least keep them out of sight by the arrangement of the building, and the steward said he would carry this counsel to his master. The duke leaves unmolested the ancient marks and devices of the city, which everywhere echo the cry of “Liberty.” Again, as to the tombs and epitaphs of the French who died here, they have removed them to a remote corner of the town, under the pretence of some reconstruction and rebuilding of the church wherein they were placed. On Saturday the 26th, after dinner, we went twelve miles through a country resembling the last we traversed, and arrived in time for supper at Buonconvento, a Tuscan _Castello_, a word they apply to the walled villages which, from their smallness, do not merit the name of town. Early on Sunday morning we departed therefrom, and because M. de Montaigne desired to see Montalcino, on account of the associations of the French therewith, he turned off the road to the right and, with M. d’Estissac, M. de Mattecoulon, and M. du Hautoy, repaired to the town aforesaid, which they described as an ill-built place, about the size of Saint Emilion,[65] situated on the top of the highest mountain of the district, but still accessible. They heard High Mass which was being said there. At one end of the town is a castle garrisoned for the duke, but M. de Montaigne was of opinion that it was faulty as a stronghold, being commanded on one side by another mountain some hundred paces distant.