[282] _Illustrium Miraculorum_, xii. 12. The next tale, in chap. xiii., relates how some men, wandering by chance on Etna, heard a voice cry from under the hill ‘Prepare the fires.’ This was heard by them a second time, and then the cry was ‘Prepare a great fire,’ upon which other voices asked for whom this should be done, and the answer came back that it was for the Duke of Thuringia, a friend and trusty servant of these lower powers. This the hearers made faith of in a writing given to the Emperor Frederick, and it presently appeared that Bertolph of Thuringia, a noted tyrant, heretic and persecutor of the Church, had died at the very day and hour when these voices were heard on Etna. [283] See _Anecdotes Historiques_, by Lecoy de la Marche, Paris, 1877, p. 32. [284] This romance was published by the Roxburghe Club, London, 1873. [285] See Grimm’s _Deutsche Mythologie_. [286] The sarcophagus was opened in 1781 and all was found as described above. The body of the great Emperor was in good preservation and with it were remains of Peter II. of Aragon, and Duke William, son of Frederick II. of Aragon. [287] German prophecies of the same kind are given by Grimm, _op. cit._ [288] See Pertz _Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum_, xviii. 796. [289] For example, he is called: Dei ‘coöperator, et Vicarius constitutus in terris’; ‘the cornerstone of the Church,’ etc. See Huillard-Bréholles _Vie et correspondance de Pierre de la Vigne_, Paris, Plon, 1864. [290] See also another romance called _L’Histoire de Maugis d’Aygremont_. [291] See also Leyden’s _Scenes of Infancy_, pt. ii. [292] Timbs’s _Abbeys, Castles, and Ancient Halls of England and Wales_: London, Warne, vol. iii. p. 126. [293] _Lay of the Last Minstrel_, Note Y. [294] I quote from the edition of Florence, 1580. [295] P. 343. See _ante_, pp. 140, 192, and Renan’s _Averroës_, p. 314. [296] P. 375. [297] I cannot leave this interesting though obscure author without noticing the undoubted reference he makes in his _Specchio_ to the Gipsies. ‘Certain people,’ he says (p. 351), ‘have a superstition regarding lucky and unlucky days, which have been pointed out to them by those who call themselves Egyptians.’ We have hitherto supposed that 1422 was the time when Gipsies first appeared in the West. That year is cited by Muratori in his _Dissertazioni_ as the date of a document which speaks of the coming of Andrew, who called himself Duke of Egypt, and all his tribe. Passavanti, however, wrote about 1350, so that the epoch of migration must be carried back at least a century. [298] _Inferno_, xx. 116, 117. [299] Lane’s _Modern Egyptians_, 1837, vol. i. p. 360. For a tract on _Es Seémiya_, by the Shaik Ali Al Tarabulsio (of Tripoli), who composed it in 1219, see Asseman, Cat. Bibl. Pal. Med. p. 362. [300] See the _De Secretis_ of Bacon for a curious account of these tricks as practised in his day. [301] _Inferno di Dante col Comento di Jacopo della Lana_, Bologna, 1866, vol. i. p. 351.