on entering the palace at Palermo, to find everything just as it had been at the moment of their departure so long before; even the pages were still going the rounds with water for the hands of the Emperor’s guests. This prodigy performed, Michael and the other withdrew and were seen no more, but Ulfo, it is said, remained ever inconsolable for the lost land of loveliness and the joys of wedded life he had left behind for ever in a dream not to be repeated. This tale appears also in the _Cento Novelle Antiche_,[304] but in that collection the place of Michael Scot and his companion is taken by ‘three masters of necromancy.’ In the _Pseudo Boccaccio_[305] we find another tale, referring to the later and less happy period of the imperial fortunes. The scene is laid in Vittoria, the armed camp which Frederick pitched so long before the walls of rebellious Parma. The Parmigiani had made a successful sally, forced the defences of Vittoria, and were plundering the place. A poor shoemaker of Parma, who made one of this expedition, was lucky enough to come upon the imperial tent itself. Entering, he found a small barrel, which he caught up and carried back to his home. On trial it proved to contain excellent wine, which the shoemaker and his wife drank from day to day, till at last it occurred to them to wonder why the supply never came to an end. They opened the barrel to see, and found within it a small silver figure of an angel with his foot planted on a grape, also of silver, from which flowed constantly the delicious wine they had so long enjoyed. ‘Now, this was made by magic art,’ continues the commentator, ‘and by necromancy, and it was Thales, otherwise called Michael Scot, who contrived it by his skill and power.’ Needless to add that, by this indiscreet curiosity, the charm was broken, and the generous wine flowed no longer to gladden the hearts of the shoemaker and his wife.