"The Palazzo Medici is situated in the Borgo degli Albizzi, and this
palace is called by the people _I Visacchi_ (_i.e._, figures or
faces), because there are to be seen in it many figures of people who
were when alive all witches and wizards, but who now live a life in
death in stone.
"The arms of the Medici bear a great key, and it is said that this
was a sorcerer's or magic key, which belonged to the master of all
the wizards or to the queen of the witches.
"And being ever evil at heart and cruelly wicked, the old Medici
sought restlessly every opportunity to do wrong, which was greatly
aided by the queen of the witches herself, who entered the family,
and allied herself to one of it; others say she was its first
ancestress. And that being on her death-bed, she called her husband,
or son, or the family, and said:
"'Take this key, and when I am dead, open a certain door in the
cellar, which, through secret passages, leads to an enchanted garden,
in which you will find all the books and apparatus needed to acquire
great skill in sorcery, and thus thou canst do all the evil and enjoy
all the crime that a great ruler can desire; spare not man in thy
vengeance, nor woman in thy passion; he lives best who wishes for
most and gets what he wants.'
"Thus it came to pass that the Medici became such villains, and why
they bear a key."
Villains they may have been, but they were not so deficient in moral
dignity as a friend of mine, who, observing that one of the pills in
their scutcheon is blue, remarked that they were the first to take a blue
pill.
Since the above was written I have collected many more, and indeed far
more interesting and amusing legends of the Medici; especially several
referring to Lorenzo the Magnificent, which are not given by any writer
that I am aware of. These will appear, I trust, in a second series.
"A race which was the reflex of an age
So strange, so flashed with glory, so bestarred
With splendid deeds, so flushed with rainbow hues,
That one forgot the dark abyss of night
Which covered it at last when all was o'er.
Take all that's evil and unto it add
All that is glorious, and the result
Will be, in one brief word, the Medici."