"Lord Foulis in his castle sat,
And beside him old Red-cap sly;
'Now tell me, thou sprite, who art mickle of might,
The death which I shall die?'"
--SCOTT'S _Border Minstrelsy_.
The Bargello has been truly described as one of the most interesting
historical monuments of Florence, and it is a very picturesque type of a
towered mediaeval palace. It was partly burned down in 1322, and rebuilt
in its present form by Neri di Fioravanti, after which it served as a
prison. Restored, or modernised, it is now a museum. As I conjectured,
there was some strange legend connected with it, and this was given to me
as follows: