But on those trembling stairs he approved of the risk we ran,
while cautioning me not to drop through one of the holes, and then
stumbled within an inch of breaking his own neck, and laughed again.
"While gropingly descending these crazy steps one dusky evening, I
gratified Julian exceedingly by hitting my nose against the wall," he
admits in the "Note-Books." Who would not enjoy seeing a monarch come
to so humble a contact with the bulwarks of his tower? Especially if
he were royal enough not to take offense at one's mirth, as this one
never did. Reaching the topmost heights of the stone pile, shaggy with
yellow moss, we eagerly pressed to the battlements and drank in the
view, finding all Florence spread out before us, far down from the
breeze and light and prospect of our perch,--understanding the joy of
falcons that are long hooded, and then finally look.
On one side of the tower was the lawn, hemmed round by a somewhat high
semicircular stone wall. In front of it was Florence, pinnacled and
roof-crowded, across the gentle valley. Not far away rose Galileo's
rival tower, and the habitations of one or two friends. On another
side of the keep the valley clipped more decidedly; and in the
foreground clustered a collection of trees upon a grassy slope,
divided from the villa lawn by a low wall, over which my father and
mother sometimes bought grapes, figs, pomegranates, and peaches grown
upon the place, which were smilingly offered by the count's contadini.
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