THE CRIME. 211 



band had been at the house, and, noticing the cake when 

 it was in making, bade them see that it was large because 

 he too should eat some of it. Whether he really thought 

 so matters little to the actual offence, but if he did not 

 think it, possibly he meant more mischief than he perfectly 

 achieved, for he offered the cake to his father-in-law, and 

 then also took a piece himself. They, too, were sick, and 

 the criminal himself was for a few days unable to go about. 

 One of the soldier brothers entering the house soon after 

 the cake was eaten, found his father, and mother, and his 

 sister violently sick. Instantly suspecting them to have 

 been poisoned by the Cardans, he drew his sword, and in 

 a fury rushed forward to kill both Gianbatista and his 

 brother Aldo 1 . They were perfectly defenceless, and by 

 no means of warlike nature. The soldier's fury, however, 

 overcame him. He fell down in a fit before he had 

 completed his design, and it was some hours before he 

 again came to be master of his actions. 



The old people recovered, but the weak Brandonia had 

 received a fatal dose. Doctors declared that she was dying 

 of a fever called by them lipyria, which she had had 

 before the child was born. She was of broken consti- 

 tution. Jerome himself, before he left Milan, had cured 

 her of a disease implying taint of blood. While the 

 poisoned woman was still lingering in life, her mother 

 i Def. Filii mei. 

 P2 



