The Tuscan forces of those days were not
exactly calculated for brilliant military display. They were about as
likely to be called on to fight as the scullions in the grand ducal
kitchen, and neither in number, appearance nor _tenue_ were they such
as would have obtained the approval of the lowest officer in the
service of a more military-minded sovereign. However, such as they
were, the grand duke used occasionally--generally on the recurrence of
some great Church festival--to review his troops. On such occasions he
was expected to say something to the men. Poor Ciuco's efforts in that
line often produced effects more amusing to bystanders than impressive
to the objects of his oratory. He was one day reviewing the troops who
occupied barracks in the well-known "Fortezza di S. Giovanni,"
popularly called by the Florentines "Fortezza da basso"--the same in
which the celebrated Filippo Strozzi, then the prisoner of the
vindictive Cosmo de' Medici, was found dead one morning, leaving to
the world the still unsolved historical problem whether he died by his
own hand or by that of his jailer hired to do the murder. The scene in
the gloomy old fortress with which we are at present concerned was of
a less tragic nature. His Serene Highness began by exhorting his
"brave army"--which, unlike that of Bombastes in the burlesque,
certainly never "kicked up a row" of any kind--to be attentive to
their religious duties.
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