‘Of course I know about him. Who in Rome doesn’t know about him? but I can’t remember it all. I know he had the book of divination, and could make the Devil do whatever he chose by its means. And then one day, I don’t remember by what circumstance, he was led to do penance; but he would do it in his own way, not in the right way, and he made a vow to the Madonna that he would pay a visit to some shrine in Rome and to S. Giacomo di Galizia,[5] and to the Santa Casa di Loreto all in the same night. As devils can fly through the air at a wonderful pace he called upon a devil by his divining book and told him what he wanted; then he got on the back of the devil and rode away through the air and actually visited all three in one night.
‘But that sort of penance was no penance at all. After that he did penance in right earnest at some church, I forget which.’
‘Was it SS. John and Paul?’ I asked.
‘Yes, to be sure; SS. John and Paul. And you knew it all the time, and yet have been asking me!’
3
‘Do you want to know about Pietro Bailliardo too?’ said the old man who had given me No. 2 of San Giovanni Bocca d’oro. ‘Oh, yes; I did know a deal about him. This is what I can remember.
‘Pietro Bailliardo had a bond[6] with the Devil, by which he was as rich as he could be, and had whatever he wanted; but the day came when the compact came to an end, and Pietro Bailliardo quailed as that day approached, for he knew that after that time the Devil could take him and he could not resist.
‘Before noon on that day, therefore, he set out to go to St. Paul’s.’
‘To SS. John and Paul?’ asked I, full of the former versions.