etti in his _Novelle_ and Manni, _Veglie
Piacevoli_, who drew it indeed from Venetian or Neapolitan-Oriental
sources, and which is best told by Leader Scott in "The Echoes of Old
Florence." It still lives among the people, and is briefly as follows,
in another form:

THE ORIGIN OF THE PONTE ALLE GRAZIE.

"There was once in Florence a Podesta or chief magistrate named
Rubaconte, and he had been chosen in the year 1236, nor had he been long
in office when a man called Bagnai, because he kept a public bath, was
brought before him on the charge of murder.

"And Bagnai, telling his tale, said: 'This is the very truth--_ne favola
ne canzone di tavola_--for I was crossing the river on the little bridge
with a hand-rail by the Palazzo Mozzi, when there came riding over it a
company of gentlemen. And it befell that I was knocked over the bridge,
and fell on a man below who was washing his feet in the Arno, and lo! the
man was killed by my dropping on him.'

"Now to the Podesta this was neither eggs nor milk, as the saying is, and
he could at first no more conclude on it than if one had asked him, '_Chi
nacque prima--l'uovo o la gallina_?' 'Which was born first--the hen or
the egg?' For on one side the _bagnajolo_ was innocent, and on the other
the dead man's relations cried for vengeance. But after going from one
side of his brain to the other for five minutes, he saw 'from here to the
mountain,' and said:

"'Now I have listened to ye both, and this is a case where one must--

"'Non giudicar per legge ni per carte,
Se non ascolti l'un e l'altra parte.'

"'Judge not by law-books nor by chart,
But look with care to either part.'

"'And as it is said, "Berta must drink from her own bottle," so I decree
that the _bagnaio_ shall go and wash his feet in the Arno, sitting in the
same place, and that he who is the first of his accusers shall fall from
the bridge on his neck, and so kill him.'

"And truly this settled the question, and it was agreed that the Podesta
was _piu savio de gli statuti_--wiser even than the law itself.

"But then Rubaconte did an even wiser thing, for he determined to have a
new bridge built in place of the old one, and hence came the Ponte alle
Grazie, 'of which he himself laid the first foundation-stone, and carried
the first basket of mortar, with all due civic ceremony, in 1236.' {82}

"But as it is said, 'he who has drunk once will drink again,' it came t