. Men and manners of old Florence . al benevolence. Reassured, DAzegliotook it into his head to help himself to an ice, oneof those especially hard ones, which were then calledmattonelle (little bricks) and were modelled into theshape of a peach. I was standing, says DAzeglio,just in front of the Count, and while I was vainlystriving to make an impression on my ice with thespoon, what does it do but slip off from under it,like a cherry-stone that is snapped ? I see it now,bounding against the ministers diamond cross, fallingto the floor, and rolling straight to the Countess ofAlbanys feet. I f
. Men and manners of old Florence . al benevolence. Reassured, DAzegliotook it into his head to help himself to an ice, oneof those especially hard ones, which were then calledmattonelle (little bricks) and were modelled into theshape of a peach. I was standing, says DAzeglio,just in front of the Count, and while I was vainlystriving to make an impression on my ice with thespoon, what does it do but slip off from under it,like a cherry-stone that is snapped ? I see it now,bounding against the ministers diamond cross, fallingto the floor, and rolling straight to the Countess ofAlbanys feet. I felt as if I should never leave off^running. That was my last visit. When theCountess died, in 1824, her loss was felt less keenlyby the greater number of the Florentines and theforeigners than it ought to have been. Goodsociety, in all countries, observed Gino Capponi, est un mauvais lieu avoue, and it is thought theproper thing to speak ill of those whose company onefrequents the most. But there was no lack of hospitable houses in. THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 279 Florence. The Marchesa Clementina Incontri, natadi Prie, a very highly cultivated lady, opened thedoors of her palace in Via de Pucci to the most selectsociety, the Piedmontese visitors especially were tobe found there, and all the letterati. In Case Incontri,as in Casa Rinuccini, the most learned and most liberalpeople were best received, because since the time ofthe French these two families had been the centreof the Italian party of progress, and were partisansof Eugene Beauharnais, dreaming of and working forthe special mission of Tuscany in the Italian Marchese Pier Francesco Rinuccini and theMarchese Ludovico Incontri had been always exceed-ingly well received in the house of the MinisterTassoni, who represented the Viceroy of Italy at theCourt of the Queen of Etruria, and afterwards duringthe French provisional government, and that of theGrand Duchess Elisa Baciocchi. The liberal traditionsof the two f
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