As soon as the mistake had once been made, and the notion of Scot’s magical powers had fairly taken possession of the popular mind, it was greatly reinforced by the association of his name and memory with the still living and adaptable Arthurian legend. Alain de l’Isle, who lived as late as 1202, says that the tales proper to this romantic cycle were so heartily believed in Brittany that any one casting doubt upon Arthur’s return would have been stoned by the people.[279] From the Trouvères the legend passed to the Troubadours of the south of France. When the Normans established themselves in Sicily, these latter poets, represented, it is said, by Pietro Vidal, and Rambaldo di Vaqueiras, carried to this new home of their race the _materia poetica_ which had so long engaged the best talents of France. The religious war which desolated Provence in the beginning of the thirteenth century completed the dispersion of the Troubadours. Many found a refuge in Italy and Sicily. They communicated an emotional impulse which led to the formation of the Italian language as a means of literary expression. Through them the inheritance of the Arthurian tales was secured to the people of the South, who soon began to localise the chief incidents of this romantic cycle in the island of Sicily.[280] Gervase of Tilbury tells us that near the town of Catania lies the burning mountain of Etna, called by the people _Mongibello_, and famed among them as the abode of King Arthur, who, they said, had lately been seen there. The matter fell out thus. The Bishop of Catania’s palfrey escaped one day from his groom, and was lost. The man sought his charge everywhere, and at last ventured to enter an opening he perceived in the hollow part of the hill. Here he found a narrow winding path which led to a pleasant land within Etna, and to a palace, the home of Arthur. He entered the palace and found the King lying on a royal couch. Arthur bade him welcome, listened to his story, and called for the steed to be brought that the Bishop might have his own again. He further told his visitor that, having been wounded in battle with Modred and Childeric king of Saxony, he had come to this retreat that he might heal him of his mortal sickness. Gervase adds that Arthur, not content with restoring the horse, paid tithe to the Bishop as one of the dwellers in his diocese, ‘which was a wonder to all that heard it.’[281]