_Vivat Sequenz_! Now for the next story.

HOW LA VIA DELLA MOSCA GOT ITS NAME

"Puer--abige Muscas!"

--_Cicero de Orat._, 60.

The following story contains no new or original elements, as it is only
an ordinary tale of transformation by witchcraft, but as it accounts for
the origin of the name of a street in Florence I give it place:--

LA VIA DELLA MOSCA.

"This is the way that the Via della Mosca, or the Street of the Fly, got
its name. There once dwelt in it, in a very old house, a family which,
while of rank, were not very wealthy, and therefore lived in a retired
manner. There were father, mother, and one daughter, who was wonderfully
beautiful--_un vero occhio di sole_.

"And as the sun hath its shadow, so there was a living darkness in this
family in a _donna di servizio_, a servant woman who had been many years
with them, who had a daughter of her own, who was also a beauty of a
kind, but as dark as the other was fair; the two were like day and night,
and as they differed in face, so were they unlike in soul. For the young
signora had not a fault in her; she would not have caused any one pain
even to have her own way or please her vanity, and they say the devil
will drop dead whenever he shall meet with such a woman as _that_.
However, he never met with this young lady, I suppose, because he is
living yet. And the young lady was so gentle of heart that she never
said an ill word of any one, while the maid and her mother never opened
their mouths save for gossip and slander. And she was so occupied with
constant charity, and caring for poor children, and finding work for poor
people, that she never thought about her own beauty at all, and when
people told her that _chi nasce bella_, _nasce maritata_ (Whoever is born
pretty is born to be married), she would reply, 'Pretty or ugly, there
are things more important in life than weddings.'

"And so far did she carry this, that she gave no heed at all to a very
gallant and handsome yet good-hearted honourable wealthy young gentleman
who lived in a palazzo opposite, and who, from watching and admiring her,
had ended by falling desperately in love. So he made a proposal of
marriage to her through her parents, but she replied (having had her
mind, in truth, on other things) that she was too much taken up with
other duties to properly care for a husband, and that her d