234 JEROME CARDAN. 



her body, in a quarrel with her mother, as has been al- 

 ready related ; that her health had long been bad, and 

 that he had himself attended her when labouring under 

 a constitutional disease, as an indication of which there 

 remained a scab upon her head when she died 1 . He laid 

 it down as " most certain" that arsenic after it has been 

 cooked ceases to be a poison. He pointed out that the 

 servant denied having been corrupted by his master's 

 bribes. He said, " I solemnly swear that although stung 

 by so many wrongs, affected by so many losses, I have 

 attempted nothing more than has concerned the preserva- 

 tion of my son. Many things that I could have proved 

 I would not suffer to appear in public depositions, nor 

 would I persecute those with my hate who are indeed 

 most worthy of it, but this wrong I leave to the Just 

 Judge to vindicate." He said that it was a false accusa- 

 tion against himself to assert that he had not helped his 

 son's household. Gianbatista had received from him in 

 seventeen months, as had been shown, ninety gold crowns, 

 being a sum equal to the whole of his own real income 

 for twenty-seven months. " The reason why he could not 

 clothe his wife, if I must confess the truth, was I believe 

 partly a defect in himself, for he was so simple, and trifled 



1 " Kepente obiit, turn maxirae quod diu comitiali morbo ex quo a 

 me liberata est laboraverat; cujus indicio fuit fovea in capite mortuse 

 puellse ut in actis apparet. Quid forea cum veneno?" Op. cit. 

 p. 1145. 



