“‘_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!’