weep, and
that if he did not respect himself too much to use improper or strong
language, he would say that Barlacchia was a dastardly blackguard and a
son of a priest. To which Barlacchia remonstrated that he had performed
to perfection exactly what he had promised to do, yea, _a punto_, to the
very letter.

"Now by this time half Florence had assembled, and being delighted beyond
all measure at this racy dispute, insisted on forming a street-court and
settling the question _alla fresca_. And when the evidence was taken,
and all the facts, which long in darkness lay, were brought full clearly
to the light of day, there was such a roaring of laughter and clapping of
lands that you would have sworn the Guelfs and Ghibellines had got at it
again full swing. But the verdict was that Barlacchia was acquitted
without a stain on his character.

"_Haec fabula docet_," comments Flaxius, "that there be others besides
Tyll Eulenspiegel who make mischief by fulfilling laws too literally.
And there are no people in this world who contrive to break the Spirit of
Christianity so much as those who follow it simply to the Letter."

THE ENCHANTED COW OF LA VIA VACCHERECCIA

"On Dunmore Heath I also slewe
A monstrous wild and cruell beaste
Called the Dun Cow of Dunmore plaine,
Who many people had opprest."

--_Guy_, _Earl of Warwick_.

The Via Vacchereccia is a very short street leading from the Signoria to
the Via Por San Maria. _Vaccherricia_, also _Vacchereccia_, means a cow,
and is also applied scornfully to a bad woman. The following legend was
given to me as accounting for the name of the place. A well-known Vienna
beerhouse-restaurant, Gilli and Letta's, has contributed much of late
years to make this street known, and it was on its site that, at some
time in "the fabled past," the building stood in which dwelt the witch
who figures in the story.

LA VIA VACCHERECCIA.

"There lived long ago in the Via Vacchereccia a poor girl, who was,
however, so beautiful and graceful, and sweet in her manner, that it
seemed to be a marvel that she belonged to the people, and still more
that she was the daughter of the woman who was believed to be her mother,
for the latter was as ugly as she was wicked, brutal, and cruel before
all the world, and a witch in secret, a creature without heart or
humanity.

"Nor was the beautifu