108 JEROME CARDAN. 



Again a river was the most convenient road, and the 

 two physicians travelled down the Seine to Rouen, which 

 town Cardan admired so much, that at the end of all his 

 travels there was none of which he spoke with like en- 

 thusiasm. Out of Rome, the Queen of Cities, he knew no 

 town so well built, so wholesome, and so handsome. Of 

 this journey through France into Scotland, Cardan relates 

 that it was not without peril, because there was the most 

 urgent danger then from war and piracy. For a serious 

 war was at that time raging between the emperor and 

 the King of France ; all things were being destroyed with 

 fire and sword; infants, women were being slain. "My 

 journey through France was made without the knowledge 

 of the emperor, even without any guarantee of public 

 faith ; yet so far was I from suffering any harm, that I 

 was received in the best spirit by the nobles. So much 

 was thought due to learning and good name by the French 

 nobility ; and truly it is splendid, liberal, generous, and 

 worthy of all praise, for in my utmost need and fear of 

 surrounding enemies, I was protected by it from the sol- 

 diers of the emperor. Marvellous chance, in truth ; the 

 enemy protects an alien lest he perish miserably in the 

 hands of his own people 1 ." 



1 Geniturarum Exemplar, p. 131. The same authority covers the 

 next fact, but the date of Cardan's arrival is said to be the 3rd of July. 

 That is irreconcilable with the context, and falsifies the whole chro- 

 nology of the subsequent journey, as given by Cardan in three or four 



