208 JEROME CARDAN. 



sister. Against him appeal was made to the authorities. 

 A daughter was born, and as her father was named after 

 John the Baptist, she was named after the Queen of 

 Heaven, Diaregina. Next there was a son born, soon 

 after Jerome went to Pavia. At that time the troubles 

 of the wretched family were at the worst, and Gianbatista 

 bought some arsenic. He even made a faint attempt to 

 kill Brandonia by mixing some of it with her food, but 

 that failing, he relented. Thereafter, whenever he be- 

 came enraged they quarrelled daily he resolved to kill 

 her, and relented as he cooled. 



Before the birth of their second child a son, called 

 Fazio 1 Brandonia was ill, and after his birth her health 

 was very feeble, though she was strong enough to scold 

 her husband. The infant had not been born many days 

 when, in the course of a great quarrel, she told Gianba- 

 tista that neither the infant nor the girl Diaregina were 

 his children. Her mother backed the assertion vehe- 

 mently, and the two women not only repeated it, but 

 named other men who were their fathers. 



Then Gianbatista went to his famulus, a youth who was 

 his partisan in the domestic war, and with whom he had 

 plotted mischief. He promised him money and clothes, 

 gave him the poison, and told him to put it into a certain 

 cake which was to be made, and which his wife would eat. 



i Paralipomenon, Lib. iii. cap. 17, "... Nepos meus ex filio 

 Facius. . . ." 



