“‘Truly thou hast great power, but I have a mind to make a great final game with thee. Ogni bel giuoco vuol durar poco—no good game should last long, and let us play this compact of ours out. If thou canst build for me a palace at the corner of the Via del Proconsolo and the Borgo degli Albizzi, and
finish it in every detail exactly as I shall order it, then will I be thine, and thou need’st do no more work for me. And if thou canst not complete it to my taste, then our compact will be all smoke, and we two past acquaintances.’
“Now it is said that to cook an egg to a turn, make a dog’s bed to suit him exactly, or teach a Florentine a trick, sono trè cose difficilé—are three very difficult things to do, and this contract for building the palace on time with indefinite ornaments made the devil shake in his shoes. However, he knew that ‘Pippo found out how to stand an egg on its end,’ [94] and where there’s a will there’s a way, especially when you have ‘all hell to back you up’—tutto l’inferno a spalleggiarvi.
“So he built and built away, with one gang of devils disguised as workmen by day, and another, invisible, by night, and everybody was amazed to see how the palace rose like weeds after a rain; for, as the saying is, mala herba presto cresce—‘ill weeds grow apace,’ and this had the devil to water it.
“Till at last one day, when the six months were nearly up, the imp said to the master:
“‘Ebbene, Signore, it is getting to the time for you to tell me how you would like to have the palace decorated. Thus far everything has been done exactly as you directed.’
“‘Ah yes, I see—all done but the finishing. Well, it may be a little hard, but I promise you, on the word of a gentleman (tra galant’ uomini una parola e un instrumento), that I will not ask you to do anything which cannot be executed even by the artists of this city.’
“Now the devil was delighted to hear this (for he was afraid he might be called on to work miracles unheard of), and so replied:
“‘Top! what man has done the devil can do. I’ll risk the trick if you swear that men can work it.’
“‘I swear!’