124 JEROME CARDAN. 



of the war, by one of which, a foreign traveller in France, 

 known to have much money with him, might fairly expect 

 to be attacked. Jerome determined, therefore, not to seek 

 the wealth awaiting him in Paris, but to travel home 

 through the Low Countries. 



There had come to him also an invitation to the court 

 of London. The young King Edward VI, weakened by 

 measles and small-pox, laboured under an affection of 

 the lungs which baffled his physicians. It was for his 

 reputed skill in treating such diseases that Cardan had 

 been at great cost brought to Edinburgh, where he had 

 confirmed his reputation. John Hamilton seemed to have 

 been raised from a death-bed. It was most desirable, 

 therefore, that the Italian physician should be persuaded 

 to go home through London and see the king. 



Jerome returned more suddenly than the archbishop 

 desired. It was painful to him to be absent from his chil- 

 dren 1 . By the first leaves that fell he was reminded that 

 he should not like to face the rigours of a Scottish winter. 

 Cassanate plagued him with his jealousy. The conduct 

 of his one lawless follower also distressed him. Early in 



1 Some of the following considerations are recorded in the Genitu- 

 rarura Exemplar, p. 106. For the day of leaving Edinburgh, see the 

 same book, p. 131. It tallies with the statement, several times made, 

 that he remained there 75 days; once he wrote, or it was printed, 68. 

 If he had not reached London till the 3rd of July, all this part of the 

 story would be wrong. The correction of July into June, giving three 

 days for a rest in town, 23, as we are told, for the journey to Edin- 

 burgh, and 75 for the stay there, brings us to the 12th of September 

 very exactly. 



