PLEADING FOR A SON'S LIFE. 227 



Turning next to the cause of the offence, the scholar 

 dwelt upon the Roman laws concerning murder following 

 the provocation given by unfaithful wives. He urged 

 that an act of disloyalty unblushingly confessed was 

 greater provocation than an act detected, because the 

 latter might be excused in a variety of ways, " as is shown 

 by Boccaccio." What could be greater horror then, than 

 to hear mother declaring before daughter, and daughter 

 before mother, a dishonour that they were determined 

 should not pass unknown and unconfirmed. The laws 

 provide for no such case of provocation, because it was 

 never contemplated. Many wives are unfaithful, but they 

 respect themselves, their husbands, and their children, so 

 that even though they should be killed by a just wrath, 

 they leave the reputation of their house preserved, they 

 do not blast the prospects of their children ; but this 

 woman cut off from them all hope. Upon this subject 

 Cardan dwelt with emphasis and with keen feeling. He 

 had himself suffered in boyhood from the reproach at- 

 taching to his birth, and moreover the desire of his old 

 age was to live again in grandchildren, to found again his 

 family, but upon all such hopes Brandonia's confession 

 rested like a curse. Stung to the quick by this view of 

 the subject, he exclaimed: " If Brandonia had been my 

 own daughter and Gianbatista but my son-in-law, and if 

 it had been proved, as it is proved by two witnesses, that 



Q2 



