Then a Dominican monk, which had all the day lurked about the great doors, did slip within the vestibule by the smoky light of the dying torches, crept to the steps where Doña Maria lay, and threw himself on her corse. BONAPARTE AT SAN MINIATO TO ARMAND GENEST BONAPARTE AT SAN MINIATO _Quand, simple citoyen, soldat d'un peuple libre, Aux bords de l'Éridan, de l'Adige et du Tibre, Foudroyant tour à tour quelques tyrans pervers, Des nations en pleurs, sa main brisait les fers...._ (Marie-Joseph Chénier, _La Promenade_.)[1] _Napoléon, après son expédition de Livourne, se rendant à Florence, coùcha à San Miniato chez un vieil abbé Buonaparte...._ (_Mémorial de Saint-Hélène_, par le comte de Las Cases, réimpression de 1823, 1824, t. I'er, p. 149.)[2] "_Je fus sur le soir à San Miniato. J'y avais un vieux chanoine de parent...._" (_Mémoires du docteur F. Antommarchi, sur les derniers moments de Napoléon_ 1825, t. I'er p. 155.)[3] [Footnote 1: "When, a plain citizen, soldier of a free people, by the banks of the Eridanus, the Adige and the Tiber, blasting with his lightnings one after another recalcitrant tyrants, his hand brake the fetters of the nations that wept...."] [Footnote 2: "Napoleon, visiting Florence after his Leghorn expedition, lay one night at San Miniato at the house of an old Abbé Buonaparte...." (_Memorial of St. Helena_, by the Count de Las Cases--reprint of 1823, 1824, Vol. I, p. 149.)] [Footnote 3: "I stayed for the night at San Miniato. I had a relative living there, an old Canon...." (_Memoirs of Dr. F. Antommarchi on the Last Moments of Napoleon_, 1825, vol. I, p. 155.)] After occupying Leghorn and closing that port against the English men-of-war, General Bonaparte proceeded to Florence to visit the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand, who alone of all the princes of Europe had honestly and honourably fulfilled his engagements with the French Republic. In token of esteem and confidence, he went there without escort, accompanied only by the officers of his Staff. Amongst other sights he was shown the arms of the Buonapartes carved over the gateway of an old house. He was already aware that a branch of his family had been fruitful and multiplied at Florence in days of yore, and that a last descendant of this the ancient race was still alive. This was a certain Canon of San Miniato, now eighty years of age. In spite of all the pressing affairs he had to attend to, he made a point of paying him a visit. Napoleon Bonaparte was always strongly moved by feelings of natural affection. On the eve of his departure from Florence, he made his way with some of his officers to the hill of San Miniato, which crowned with its walls and towers, rises from the plain at half a league's distance from the city.