"What!" sighed Nicolas Nerli, his face as white as chalk. "Duomo, pulpit, basin, Hospital with all its beds, do they weigh no more than a bit of straw, a pinch of down from a bird's breast?" "See for yourself, Nicolas!" said the Archangel; "so far the weight of your iniquities much outweighs the light load of your good works." "Then I must go to Hell," cried the Florentine; and his teeth chattered with horror. "Patience, Nicolas Nerli," returned the Weigher of Souls, "patience! we are not done yet. There is something left." So saying, the Blessed St. Michael took the loaves of black bread the rich man had tossed the night before to the poor beggars. He laid them in the scale containing the good works, which instantly fell, while the other rose, and the two scales remained level. The beam dropped neither to right nor left, and the needle marked the exact equality of the two loads. The Banker could not believe his eyes; but the glorious Archangel said solemnly: "See, Nicolas Nerli; you are good neither for Heaven nor Hell. Begone! Go back to Florence! multiply through the city the loaves you gave last night with your own hand, in the dusk, when no man saw you--and you shall be saved. It is not enough that Heaven open its doors to the thief that repented and the harlot that wept. The mercy of God is infinite, and able to save even a rich man. Do this; multiply the loaves whose weight you see weighing down my balances. Begone!" Then Nicholas Nerli awoke in his bed. He resolved to follow faithfully the counsel of the Archangel, and multiply the bread of the poor, and so enter into the kingdom of Heaven. For the three years he spent on earth after his first death, he was very pitiful to the unfortunate and a great giver of alms. THE MERRY-HEARTED BUFFALMACCO TO EUGÈNE MÜNTZ THE MERRY-HEARTED BUFFALMACCO _Buonamico di Cristofano detto Buffalmacco pittore Fiorentino, il qual fu discepolo d' Andrea Tafi, e come uomo burlevole celebrato da Messer Giovanni Boccaccio nel suo Decamerone, fu come si sa carissimo compagno di Bruno e di Calendrino pittori ancor essi faceti e piacevole, e, come si può vedere nell' opere sue sparse per tutta Toscana, di assai buon giudizio nell' arte sua del dipignere._ _(Vite de' più eccellenti pittori_, da Messer Giorgio Vasari.--"Vita di Buonamico Buffalmacco.")[1] [Footnote 1: "Buonamico di Cristofano, known as Buffalmacco, a Florentine painter, the same that was pupil of Andrea Tafi, and celebrated as a burlesque character by Messer Giovanni Boccaccio in his _Decameron_ was as we know bosom friend of Bruno and Calendrino, also painters and of an even more witty and merry humour than himself, and as may be seen in his works scattered throughout Tuscany, of no mean judgement in his art of painting." _(Lives of the most Excellent Painters_ by Messer Giorgio Vasari.--"Life of Buonamico Buffalmacco.")] I THE COCKROACHES