A WRETCHED HOUSEHOLD. 207 



and had lost all his possessions or the use of them. The 

 woods mentioned by Cardan in his letter to his son were 

 probably some fragments of the lost estate that had been 

 alienated only for a term of years. 



Jerome, as we have seen, refused to admit the bride 

 into his house, or to take upon himself the support of the 

 Seioni family, and for nine months Gianbatista lived 

 upon what he could earn, or by the sale of superfluous 

 possessions. He was unable to clothe properly himself 

 or his wife, and even after his father had taken pity 

 upon their state, and supplied liberal means, they were 

 still pinched by want. The young physician went on 

 foot about the streets of Milan, wearing his summer 

 clothes for want of others in the winter weather 1 . Gian- 

 batista had no prudence, and his wife was represented by 

 a hungry family of idlers. Even the wedding-ring that 

 Jerome had given to his son Lucia's perhaps Brandonia 

 gave secretly to her father with a piece of silk that he 

 might pledge them to raise money for himself. Husband 

 and wife lived thus together for about two years, quar- 

 relling daily, and helped stoutly in their quarrelling 

 by the wife's mother. The soldier brothers-in-law also 

 plunged into the domestic war, and one of them once 

 went to bully Jerome, and so get more money for his 



i " Defensio Joan. Baptistae Cardani, filii mei; per Hier. Card. Med. 

 Mediol." Passages in the same document contain the facts stated in 

 the next fiye sentences. 



