o has ever returned from the dreaded Megano. A few days later he encountered the same brigands on the way from Scala, and gave himself up for lost. They, however, were so much alarmed at his unexpected appearance that they did not touch him, but fired after his retreating form without effect. Finding later that he had indeed returned, they entered the courtyard of his house one night, and proceeded to force open the door. The aged wife of Verone having heard them, hastened to warn her husband.
Fear not,' he replied 'trust in God, and let us recite our Rosary.' While thus engaged the moon emerged from behind a cloud and lighted up the church of St. Eustace on the rock above, showing the approach of the desired aid. From the churchyard they saw a line of ghostly figures descend the rock-hewn stairs which lead from St, Eustace to the Palazzo Verone; but, robed in white, they appeared to the alarmed couple to be angels from heaven. They silently descended and filled the court, when they proved to be members of a confraternity of Misericordia, who had assisted at a funeral, and were returning home dressed in their white hoods and loose garments. They belaboured the robbers with their staves and put them to flight, and Verone and his wife were saved from certain death."
A grotesque fresco may- still be seen on the wall of the Casa Verone, at Pontone, in which skeletons are beating the robbers with bones ; and several supernatural versions of the above tale, founded upon this picture, are narrated at the present day.
An earlier church, dedicated to Sta. Stefania, sister of St. Eustace, stood on a neighbouring rock, but was blown down in 1852. The grey and yellow designs round the windows, and the decorated tower, greatly resembled the church of Santa Maria di Gradillo at Ravello.
Minuto, on the road leading from Pontone to Scala, is also an outlying part of Scala. It contains a church dedicated to the Annunziata, where the arches of the portico are Saracenic, the marbles having originally been those of an older building. Portions of a Latin inscription in very large letters are distinctly visible in the entrance, and an early fresco of the Virgin occupies a niche in the fašade. The twelve columns of the interior have capitals of various designs, and an inverted Corinthian capital supports the font. A beautiful pulpit in gesso, referred to by several writers on art in Southern Italy, was given in 1300 by Filippo Spina, whose arms were intertwined with arabesque designs, while on the marble staircase was an inscription commemorating a festa held in 1420-the whole richly worked and, delicately coloured. The donor died in 1346, and was buried in San Giovanni at Pontone. In 1855 this pulpit was pulled down by the parish priest of the day, and ground to powder, to mix with lime for building purposes.
The crypt is in a neglected state, but contains an extremely interesting fresco. In the upper part the Virgin, draped in red and violet, reclines, holding the Infant Jesus swathed with bands of red and yellow, an open country and mountains forming the background. In another part two women are bathing the child, while St. Joseph sits absorbed in contemplation. An archangel announces the birth to the shepherds, groups of angels hover near, and over all stream the rays of a large star. Other figures adorn the vaulted roof, the names of St. George and St. Nicholas being in Lombard characters. Two lower spaces represent a' scene probably taken from real life. A Saracen prince is waited on by two Arabs and a boy, the former turbaned, the latter apparently a captive; and in the second fresco the same lad is led by a bishop into the presence of some people who sit at dinner, while two women approach, one gesticulating to express her astonishment, and the other hastening to embrace him. In both pictures the youth bears a globe, apparently of glass, the object or use of which is unknown.
Scala is now only a scattered village on the slope of the wooded mountains, on the summit of which are the ruins of the Castello del Petraro, built to command the