lo, the great sculptor, was in the
Bargello when he said, '_E'rise a me ed io riso a lui_'--'He laughs at
me, and I do laugh at him.' Donatello was _in quistione_, or in trouble
with the law, and in prison, for having killed one of his pupils. The
Marquis di Ferrara asked him if he was guilty. But Donatello had already
received from the Marquis a license to slay any one in self-defence, and
so he made that answer."

A LEGEND OF THE BARGELLO.

"One day a young man, who had been gaming and lost, threw some dirt at an
image of the Virgin in one of the numerous shrines in the city, blaming
her for his bad luck. He was observed by a boy, who reported it to the
authorities, and was soon arrested. Having confessed that he did it in a
rage at having lost, he was hanged the same night from one of the windows
of the Bargello." {164}

* * * * *

Thereby adding another ghost or _folletto_ to those who already haunt the
place. It should be noted that according to Italian witch-lore a ghost
is never simply the spirit of the departed as he _was_, but a spirit
transformed. A witch becomes a _fata_, good or bad, and all men
something more than they were.

Among other small legends or tales in which the Bargello is referred to,
I find the following, of which I must first mention that _debito_ in
Italian means not only debt but duty, and that _fare un debito_ is not
only to get into debt, but to do what is just, upright, and honourable.

"It happened once, long ago, that a certain good fellow was being
escorted, truly not by a guard of honour, but by several
bum-bailiffs, to the Bargello, and met a friend who asked him why he
was in custody. To which he replied, 'Other men are arrested and
punished for crime or villainy, but I am treated thus for having
acted honourably, _per aver fatto il debito mio_.'

"And it happened to this same man that after he had been entertained
for a time at the public expense in that _gran albergo_, or great
hotel, the Bargello, that the Council of Eight, or the public
magistracy, gave him a hearing, and told him that he must promptly
pay the debt which he owed, which was one of fifty _scudi_ or crowns.
To which he replied that he could not. Then the chief of the Eight
said, 'We will find out a way to make you pay it, be sure of that.'
To which he answered, '_De gratia_, _Signore_, wh