.

* * * * *

"To this I may add," writes Flaxius, "that there is an English legend of
a certain skull which always returned to a certain window in a tower.
_Apropos_ of which there is a poem called _The Student and the Head_ in
'Hans Breitmann in Germany' (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1895), prefaced by
a remark to the effect that the subject is so extensive as to deserve a
book--instancing the head of the physician Douban in the 'Arabian
Nights,' with that of Orpheus, which spoke to Cyrus, and that of the
priest of Jupiter, and another described by Trallianus, and the
marvellously preserved head of a saint in Olaf Tryggvason's Saga, and the
Witch's Head of Rider Haggard, with many more, not to speak of the
talking Teraphim heads, and Friar Bacon's bust. With which a thoroughly
exhaustive list should include the _caput mortuum_ of the alchemists

"'And the dead-heads of the Press.'"

THE COLUMN OF COSIMO, OR DELLA SANTA TRINITA

"_Columna Florentina_.--Prope Sanctae Trinitatis aedem ingens et
sublimis columna erecta, cujus in fastigio extat justitia. Eam
erexit Cosmus Magnus Dux, cui per urbem deambulanti, illic de
victoria renunciatum fuit quam Malignani Marchio in Senarum finibus
anno 1555 contra Petrum Strozium obtinuit."--_Templum Naturae
Historicum_, Darmstadt, 1611.

"Vesti una Colonna,
Le par una donna."--_Italian Proverb_.

The central spot of Florence is the grand column of granite which stands
in the middle of the Piazza di Santa Trinita, in the Via Tornabuoni,
opposite the Palazzo Feroni. It was brought from the Baths of Caracalla
in Rome, and erected in 1564 by Cosimo I., "in commemoration of the
surrender of Siena in 1554, and of the destruction of the last liberties
of Florence by the victory at Monte Murlo, 1537, over those whom his
tyranny had driven into exile, headed by Filippo and Piero Strozzi. It
is surmounted by a statue of 'Justice' in porphyry, by _Ferruci_," says
Murray's Guide-Book--the Italian declares it to be by _Taddi_, adding
that the column was from the Baths of Antoninus, and was a gift to Cosimo
I. from Pius IV.

There is a popular legend that once on a time a poor girl was arrested in
Florence for having stolen a chain, a bracelet, or some such article of
jewellery of immense value. She was thrown into prison, but though there
was collateral or indirect evidence to prove her guilt, the stolen
articl