210 JEROME CARDAN. 



Pavia with him, became restless, and determined to de- 

 part. Whether he was in any way privy to the designs of 

 his brother it is hard to say, but he contrived fairly to 

 incur suspicion. Cardan objected wholly to the youth's 

 departure, and when he found that he could not persuade 

 him to remain at home, being unwilling to use force, he 

 consulted the stars, and discovered that his son would be 

 imprisoned, and was threatened with grave harm. Inter- 

 preting that omen as having reference to Aldo, he then 

 warned him privately of his discovery. When that 

 warning proved to be of no avail, he said to him, in the 

 presence of the entire household, that if he went he would 

 be wanting to return when he w r ould not have power to 

 do so. It was then vacation-time, and Jerome could have 

 travelled with this son to Milan. He was really on the 

 point of doing so as a relief to his anxiety. If he had 

 done so, his whole life might have ended differently, he 

 might have been in time to snatch his other son from the 

 abyss of crime into which he was about to leap. The 

 fates, he says, kept him at Pavia. 



Aldo had come into his brother's house. The cake was 

 made, and a piece of it was given to the sick wife, whose 

 infant was but a few days old. She vomited at once. 

 The mother-in-law took some of it with a like effect. 

 Gianbatista thought, as he alleged afterwards, that the 

 poison had not been used, partly because his sister's hus- 



