suffering, but after a while, recovering himself, he began
to wonder whether the maid was not after all confined in the Via
Vacchereccia. And as love doubles all our senses and makes the deaf
hear, and, according to the proverb, 'he who finds it in his heart will
feel spurs in his flanks,' so this young man, hearing the old woman
spoken of as a witch, began to wonder whether she might not be one in
truth, and whether Artemisia might not have been _confinata_ or enchanted
into some form of an animal, and so imprisoned.

"And, full of this thought, he went by night to the house, where there
was an opening like a window or portal in the courtyard, and began to
sing:

"'Batte le dodici a una campana,
Si sente appena dalla lontana.

"'Se almeno la voce potessi sentire,
Della mia bella che tanto deve soffrire.'

"'Midnight is striking, I hear it afar,
High in the heaven shines many a star.

"'And oh that the voice of the one I could hear,
Who suffers so sadly--the love I hold dear.

"'Oh stars, if you're looking with pity on me,
I pray you the maid from affliction to free!'

"As he sang this, he heard a cow lowing in the courtyard, and as his mind
was full of the idea of enchantment, his attention was attracted to it.
Then he sang:

"'If enchanted here you be,
Low, but gently, _one_, _two_, _three_!
Low in answer unto me,
And a rescue soon you'll see.'

"Then the cow lowed three times, very softly, and the young man,
delighted, put to her other questions, and being very shrewd, he so
managed it as to extract with only yea and nay all the story. Having
learned all this, he reflected that to beat a terrier 'tis well to take a
bulldog, and after much inquiry, he found that there dwelt in Arezzo a
great sorcerer, but a man of noble character, and was, moreover,
astonished to learn from his mother that this _gran mago_ had been a
friend of his father.

"And being well received by the wise man, and having told his story, the
sage replied:

"'Evil indeed is the woman of whom you speak--a black witch of low
degree, who has been allowed, as all of her kind are, to complete her
measure of sin, in order that she may receive her full measure of
punishment. For all things may be forgiven, but not cruelty, and she has
lived on the sufferings of others. Yet her power is of a petty kind, and
such as any priest can crush.

"'Go to the stable when she shall be absen