Ricordomi d’aver udito dire — “I do remember to have heard it said that there was once in Florence a young man who lived in the Via Lambertesca, in the old tower there, from which the top is gone.
And he, as many had done before him, fell in love with and married a beautiful girl — as it is to be hoped that many more will do, so long as it pleaseth God.

But there was another young lady who loved this gentleman, and she was nearly mad with rage and jealousy; nor was it much helped by her being a witch, who, like all her kind, had more fire and more fuel, tenfold, than any ordinary woman — that is to say, she had all the passions of a she-devil and abundant means to gratify them.

So the first thing she did was to bind or render impotent the bridegroom (of which there are many ways — with needles and keys, knots, and so on). But however she did it, the young man every night on going to bed became cold and stiff as a corpse, nor did he recover from this till the next day; and then till night remained very weak and ill.

Then his wife, thinking there was evil in all this, went to consult a wise old man who dwelt up in the mountains of Vallombrosa, and he said to her:
“Your husband is surely stregato e legato — bewitched and bound.
When he goes to bed, make him turn all his clothes inside out.
Hang up ivy, plane-leaves (plátano), and sprinkle holy water all about.”

All of this was done with great care, and a little while after, the windows being left open, there flew into the room an enormously large bat.
The signore drew his sword, and closing the windows, chased it about. Then the eyes of the bat shot fire, and it made a loud, shrieking sound which was truly horrible.
But when it swooped down as if to attack the wife, the young lord struck it with his sword, and it fell fluttering and dying to the ground.

The gentleman felt in an instant that he was cured, and taking up the bat, he carried it out and threw it into a large adjacent closet.

But when he looked for it in the morning, he found no bat lying in the closet — but the dead body of the witch.