VKEPARIXG TO QUIT EDINBUKGH. 125 



September, therefore, he begged for permission to depart. 

 The archbishop who had lent some of his renewed 

 strength already to his brother, and got from him a retrac- 

 tation of his promise to resign the regency the archbishop 

 said that he was relieved, not cured, and lamented that 

 his help should fail just when he had begun to feel its 

 value. Cardan's stay, he reminded him, was short, in 

 proportion to the great length of the journey he had un- 

 dertaken. Nor was it then a safe time for departure ; war 

 was everywhere. Finally, the archbishop pleaded, that if 

 his physician would wait with him six months more, 

 until April, he should be detained no longer. Gold 

 had no power of temptation. " The love of my sons," 

 Jerome says, " urged me." With difficulty, therefore, 

 the consent of the archbishop was obtained, and on the 

 12th of September, Cardan and his followers quitted 

 Edinburgh to retrace their way to London. 



On the night before his departure, Jerome supped with 

 his reverend patron, and received many gifts from the 

 archbishop and his friends. His grace paid him for his 

 visit eighteen hundred gold crowns, of which fourteen 

 hundred went to Cardan himself, the rest to his attend- 

 ants. This payment was much in excess of the stipulated 

 ten gold crowns a day. There was presented to Cardan, 

 also, a gold chain worth a hundred and twenty-five crowns ; 

 and, among other gifts, was the welcome one of an am- 

 bling horse, upon which he could set out comfortably for 



