“Then the old servant woman appeared at the door, against her will, forced by the power of the spell, in an agony of rage and bitterness; but she was at once seized and beaten, whereupon she consented to unbewitch the girl, who speedily recovered. “Now Florence was at that time fearfully afflicted with evil witches, who defied all authority, and spread disease and death far and wide; but this affair of the bewitched lady being made known, both priests and laymen rose up in wrath, and the sorceress fled for sanctuary to the cloisters of San Lorenzo. “Then to save their lives the _Strege_ made a compromise with the priests, and it was agreed that they should no longer live as witches, or do any harm, but all live and die as cats in the cloister, where they should be regularly fed, and exist in peace. Which agreement has been duly carried out to this day, and among these cats are many who were once witches in human form hundreds of years ago.” * * * * * This narrative is not so much a story as an account of the manner in which bewitchment is undone by another witch. The reader will find the incantations in the chapter entitled “The Spell of the Boiling Clothes,” in my work on “Etruscan-Roman Remains.” One of the most serious riots which has occurred in Milan for many years took place March 3, 1891, when the populace tortured terribly and tried to kill a witch, who had, it was believed, been detected by this spell. * * * * * “_Hæc fabula docet_,” adds the wise Flaxius, “this story suggests a reason why a certain kind of ladies of ecclesiastical proclivities are always called tabbies. And that there is something in it I can well believe, knowing one who, when she calls her rector or bishop ‘_De-ar man_!’ does so in a manner which marvellously suggests the purring of a cat. And the manner in which the tabby pounces on the small birds, mice, and gold-fish of others—_i.e._, their peccadilloes, and small pets or pleasures, which in good faith do her no harm—seems like literally copying the feline—upon line. . . . “Oh! ye who visit the cloister, and see the cats, think well on this legend, and especially on the deep identity of witches with tabbies! “And for a moral, note that, with all their sins, what the witches and cats aimed at above all things was _food_, with which they have remained content, according to the exquisite lyric by the divine Shelley, p. 661, Dowden’s edition:— “‘This poor little cat Only wanted a rat, To stuff out its own little maw, And it were as good Some people had such food To make them _hold their jaw_.’” LEGEND OF THE PIAZZA SAN BIAGIO “For by diabolical art he assumed varied forms, even the human, and deceived people by many occult tricks.”—FROMANN, _Tractatus de Fascinatione_, 1675. This is a slight tale of light value, and not new, but it has assumed local colour, and may amuse the reader.