is _palazzo_. Now
such ghosts are the hardest to lay.

"'_E niente_, _Signore_,' said the devil. '_E vi passarebbe un carro di
fieno_. 'Tis nothing, my lord; one could drive a cartload of hay through
it.' {92} But the devil had a devil of a time to lay _that_ ghost!
There was clanking of chains and howling, and _il diavolo scatenato_ all
night long ere it was done.

"'_E finito_, _Signore_,' said the devil in the morning. But he looked
so worn-out and tired, that the young man began to _think_.

"And he thought, 'This devil of mine is not quite so clever as I
supposed.' And it is a fact that it was only a _diavolino_--a small
devil who had thought the young man was a fool--in which he was mistaken.
A man may have _un ramo di pazzo come l'olmo di Fiesole_--'be a bit of a
fool,' but 'a fool and a sage together can beat a clever man,' as the
saying is, and both were in this boy's brain, for he came of wizard
blood. So he reflected, 'Perhaps I can cheat this devil after all.' And
he did it.

"Moreover, this devil being foolish, had begun to be too officious and
consequential. He was continually annoying the Signore by asking for
more work, even when he did not want it, as if to make a show of his
immense ability and insatiable activity. Finally, beginning to believe
in his own power, he began to appear far too frequently, uncalled, rising
up from behind chairs abruptly in his own diabolical form, in order to
inspire fear; but the young lad had not been born in Carnival to be
afraid of a mask, as the saying is, and all this only made him resolve to
send his attendant packing.

"'Chi ha pazienza, cugino,
Ha i tordi grassi a un quattrino.'

"'He who hath patience, mind me, cousin,
May buy fat larks a farthing a dozen.'

"Now, amid all these dealings, the young signore had contrived to fall in
love with the daughter of his guardian, Alessandro Strozzi, and also to
win her affections; but he observed one day when he went to see her,
having the _diavolino_ invisible by his side, the attendant spirit
suddenly jibbed or balked, like a horse which stops before the door, and
refused to go farther. For there was a Madonna painted on the outside,
and the devil said:

"'I see a virgin form divine,
And virgins are not in my line;
I'm not especially devout:
Go thou within--I'll wait without!'

"And the young man observing that his devil was devilishly afraid of holy
water, made a no