SCOT AT THE COURT OF SICILY 41 



Provence, and several others, so that soon the fair 

 gardens and pleasant palace were emptied and 

 deserted as a place where only the plague might 

 dare to linger. The King and Queen, with five 

 hundred Spanish knights and a great Sicilian fol- 

 lowing, passed eastward ; to Cefalu first, and then 

 on to Messina and Catania, as if they could not 

 put too great a distance between themselves and 

 the infected spot. Meanwhile Michael Scot, whose 

 occupation in Palermo, and indeed about the King, 

 was now gone, set sail in the opposite direction and 

 sought the coast of Spain. Whether the idea of 

 this voyage was his own, was the result of a royal 

 commission, or had been suggested by some of the 

 learned who came with Queen Constantia from her 

 native land, it is now impossible to say. It was in 

 any case a fortunate venture, which did much, not 

 only for Scot's personal fame, but for the general 

 advantage in letters and in arts. 



