husband to Naples, and at his death in 1414 was imprisoned by her sister-in-law, Joan II. At the end of a year she succeeded in making her escape with her children and returned to Lecce, where she was received with enthusiasm. A curious specimen of the language of those times is preserved at the Monastery of St. Benedict of Conversano, in a letter written by the Queen to the— Carissimæ nobis Abbatissæ Monasterii Sancti Benedicti Civitatis Cupersani : "Maria, Regina Hungariæ, Jerusalem et Siciliæ : 66 Egregia Carissima post salutem : Recepemono la lettera vostra, et placzemi assai, che lo Principe nostro beneditto figlio agia fatto rendere la obediantia di Castellana, et respondere delli raysoni debiti alla monasterio, imperoche tanto muy, quanto ipso, sino tenuti non solamente de le cose debite, ma etiam de proprio subvenire la ecclesia pregandore che vi piacza avere a mente alli vostri oracioni tanto muy, quanto lo Principe, Gabriele, Catarina vostra, e li pichirilli. "Datum in Castro nostro Licii, &c., &c." "La Maiesta de Madamma nostra Regina Maria" made most admirable laws, and what is "OUR MARY'S" LAWS. 247 more, insisted on their observance. Strangers who came to settle at Lecce were exempt from taxes for three years, and old and decrepit persons were not to pay any. Assassins were to be whipped and then hung. Cloth merchants were not to "transmutare li numi alli dicti panni. se sono Ragusini chiamarli Ragusini et non panni Veneciani" ("change the names of their cloths ... if they are Ragusian, call them Ragusian and not Venetian cloths"). Horses were not to be galloped in the streets of the town to the risk of other people; there was plenty of room outside the walls, and so on. Queen Mary died at Lecce in 1446, and was buried in Santa Croce; unfortunately, her tomb was destroyed in the seventeenth century. The country between Lecce and Otranto is flat, but the colouring wonderfully beautiful, and the white towns give a gay look to the landscape, while the buffalo carts and picturesque dress of the peasantry were a perpetual delight to us. Nardò, the ancient Neritum, lies not far off on the line to Gallipoii. It was of some repute in classic days, and preserved its claims to celebrity to a later date, if we may believe Antonio de Ferraris, commonly called Galateo. He was born at Galatone and educated at Nardò, which he describes as famous for its professors and a seat of great learning. A. Galateo was physician to Alfonso of Arragon and wrote, among other works, a Latin account of his own country, "De Situ Japygiæ." He describes the appearance of "airy phantoms" in the territory of Nardò, Conversano, and Manduria, and curiously enough, we saw a lake with boats in full sail in front of the train. I could not persuade my companions that it was only a mirage, until we came nearer and it faded away. Ascanio Grande also mentions the phenomena: "Tal nella Magna Grecia, altera vista, Navili, e pur prima che il ciel s'allume: (Thus, in Magna Grecia, a glorious sight, not far from where springs my native Idume, a new garden, or a new and unknown city, rises before the sun illumines the eastern sky. or suddenly ships rejoice the sight. before the sky is ablaze. Then the phantom vanishes, one's vision clears, and wonder fills the mind anew.") In and about Lecce the mirage is called "Mutate" or 66 Scangiate." One celebrated case was told me, when the whole country was AN OLD LEGEND. 249 alarmed, and messengers sent post-haste to warn the governors of towns and fortresses of the approach of a large fleet from the East. It was in the fifteenth century, when the Turks were a constant source of terror, and the fleet was seen along the whole coast, from Mount Garganus to the Capo de Leuca. There is also an old legend that when Manfred was born, two huge human forms appeared in the clouds and fought, mid thunder and lightning, from sunrise till midday, when one suddenly vanished while the other turned into the semblance of a monk and was driven northwards by a violent wind. |