CARDAN SUMMONED FROM PA VIA. 



crossing it in the place necessary to suggest a sword hilt^ 

 The blood implies no more than redness of the line r 

 and it is not hard to understand how, as the case went on, 

 while he was working for his son in Milan, Jerome'a 

 excited fancy traced the growth of the sword upward 

 along his finger. On the Sunday morning after he- 

 received the message, since night travelling was hardly 

 possible, Cardan hastened to Milan. There he learned 

 from his daughter and his daughter's husband the extent 

 of the calamity that had brought shame and ruin on his- 

 house. It was not for him then to stand aloof, or have 

 regard for reputation. The glory and hope of his life- 

 were gone ; he cared no more for his credit in the town ; 

 he was a father, nothing else, sixty years old and grey- 

 headed, with no object before him but the rescue of his- 

 son. He threw the whole of his personal influence and 

 reputation at the feet of his child. A physician, high in 

 reputation, could not safely lavish love and time and 

 money on a murderer. Cardan was to be seen labouring 

 night and day for a villain whom few men thought 

 worthy of compassion, and not content with hired and 

 formal advocacy, standing up with all his wretchedness in/> 

 open court to plead for him, eager to ensure to him the use 

 of all good and bad arguments that wit could devise in ex- 

 tenuation of his villany, cleaving to him as his son, and 

 making common cause with him; he could not be seen- 



