TROUBLES OF GIANBATISTA. 189 



only against yourself, but against all who belong to you, 

 I write to you these words. If you will fairly give your 

 mind to them, and obey them to the letter, there is yet 

 hope of saving you. That you may bring your mind to 

 do that (if there is any power in the prayers of a father 

 for a son) I entreat and again entreat God as a suppliant. 



" For how can I help being moved to pity when I see 

 you beset with so much calamity that you want all things 

 of which mortals stand in need? At the outset, advice, 

 money, strength of frame ; and now, at last, your health. 

 O Heaven ! If you had not sought all this by your own 

 will, this sorrow would be more than I can bear. But 

 since you have compounded for yourself this cup of all 

 miseries, among which I have lately understood that you 

 are contemned even by my friends, and that (I think) 

 through your own fault, I can do nothing (for I know 

 their great influence and their good-will towards you and 

 me); but I have resolved to bear with equal mind what- 

 ever is in store. Nevertheless, so great is my anxiety, 

 that in the depth of night (though I was not used to rise 

 before the day, now I rise long before it) I write to you 

 this. 



" I call God to witness that I am moved by no anger; 

 that I would in any way have helped you, and received 

 you into my house; but I feared (as was most likely) that 

 to do so would have been rather my own ruin than your 



