And that being on her death-bed, she called her husband,
or son, or the family, and said:

"'Take this key, and when I am dead, open a certain door in the
cellar, which, through secret passages, leads to an enchanted garden,
in which you will find all the books and apparatus needed to acquire
great skill in sorcery, and thus thou canst do all the evil and enjoy
all the crime that a great ruler can desire; spare not man in thy
vengeance, nor woman in thy passion; he lives best who wishes for
most and gets what he wants.'

"Thus it came to pass that the Medici became such villains, and why
they bear a key."

Villains they may have been, but they were not so deficient in moral
dignity as a friend of mine, who, observing that one of the pills in
their scutcheon is blue, remarked that they were the first to take a blue
pill.

Since the above was written I have collected many more, and indeed far
more interesting and amusing legends of the Medici; especially several
referring to Lorenzo the Magnificent, which are not given by any writer
that I am aware of. These will appear, I trust, in a second series.

"A race which was the reflex of an age
So strange, so flashed with glory, so bestarred
With splendid deeds, so flushed with rainbow hues,
That one forgot the dark abyss of night
Which covered it at last when all was o'er.
Take all that's evil and unto it add
All that is glorious, and the result
Will be, in one brief word, the Medici."

FURICCHIA, OR THE EGG-WOMAN OF THE MERCATO VECCHIO

"Est anus inferno, vel formidanda barathro,
Saga diu magicis usa magisteriis,
Haec inhians ova gallina matre creatis.
Obsipat assueto pharmaca mixta cibo,
Pharmaca queis quaecunque semel gallina voratis,
Ova decem pariat bis deciesque decem."

STEUCCIUS, _cited by_ P. GOLDSCHMIDT,
_Verworffener Hexen und Zauberadvocat_. Hamburg, 1705.

"E un figliuolo della gallina bianca."--_Old Proverb_.

The Mercato Vecchio was fertile in local traditions, and one of these is
as follows:

LEGEND OF THE LANTERNS.

"There was in the Old Market of Florence an old house with a small shop
in it, and over the door was the figure or bas-relief of a pretty hen, to
show that eggs were sold there.

"All the neighbours were puzzled to know how the woman who kep