Before leaving Leghorn, I called upon Dr. P⸺ a Scotch medical gentleman, practising at this place. While at his house, Dr. D⸺ of Florence, for whom I had letters, came in, having just arrived in charge of the corpse of Captain Broughton of the royal navy, who had died in that city, and which he had brought for burial at Leghorn. Early in the morning I got ready for the voiture, but had the mortification, notwithstanding the assurances of the Saxony merchant, to find myself left behind, as it was stated to be quite full; I had, however, a resource in the diligence, which fortunately was on the point of starting, with a vacant place, which I immediately secured, paying twenty-five pauls for my fare. We stopped at the gates of the town to have our passports and baggage examined, and I may take this opportunity of remarking, that in both these respects, I suffered less inconvenience at Leghorn than usual in consequence of being _un militaire_. In this case, the passport has only to be signed by the commandant, who does it with much civility, and without any charge; my baggage was neither inspected on entering or leaving the town. We had no conducteur to Florence, and changed the postillion at every post, who, as in England, expected a gratuity at the end of it; I had an instance here of the indisposition of native passengers, to give information to strangers, to prevent their being imposed upon; for one to whom I applied, on this occasion, evaded a direct answer for a length of time, before he could be brought to state, that it being a long stage, and equal to a double post, he should give a paul, being at the rate of half a paul for each post. We were driven the first post from Pisa tolerably well, but afterwards, for a time, made very slow progress, contrary to what I had understood respecting the rapidity of Florentine travelling. On inquiry, it was stated, that we should get on faster by paying the postillion extra, which we then agreed to do, and I am not aware, that I was ever better driven in my life, than after this compromise. In about nine hours we arrived at the gates of Florence, where we were detained some time in the examination of passports and baggage. I here attempted to take advantage of my experience, at Leghorn, of the value of a military character, but it would not do; after irritating the Italian officer, whose language I could not comprehend, but my pretending for some time not to understand his demand to inspect my baggage, I was obliged to descend, and lay open my portmanteau. This soon settled the business, and we shortly after arrived at the Swiss Pension, kept by Madame Hembert, to which I had been recommended by my slippery Saxony merchant, and for which at least, I afterwards found my acknowledgments were due to him. CHAP. XIV. FLORENCE, AND JOURNEY TO ROME.