290 JEROME CARDAN. 



It is hard to say whether this prophecy was considered 

 to be fulfilled, when, five years afterwards, on the 13th 

 of October, 1570 1 , Cardan, then nearly seventy years 

 of age, was suddenly cast into prison. He does not tell 

 us why, but there is the strongest ground for believing 

 that it was upon an accusation of impiety. The reasons 

 for that opinion will appear in the succeeding chapter. 

 In prison he was liberally used ; and after a confinement 

 of eleven weeks, on a Friday, the same day on which 

 he had entered, and at the same hour of the day, in the 

 evening twilight, he returned to his own house. 



He was not released, but suffered to take his own house 

 for a prison, having given a bond in eighteen hundred 

 gold crowns for his honesty as gaoler to himself. After 

 the bond was signed, and the officials had departed, his 

 faithful pupil Rodolf Silvester who graduated the year 

 afterwards being left in the prison with him, and the 

 door being left open, the afternoon sun at the same time 

 glittering through the window, Jerome asked his friend 

 to shut the door. It closed with a slam, and at the same 

 time there was a sudden blow upon the window. Jerome 

 and his friend both heard and saw it. It was, of course, 

 the natural effect of the concussion of air, caused by the 

 shutting of the door. But Cardan dwelt upon it as a 



1 The narrative to the conclusion of the chapter is from a comparison 

 of De Vita Propria, cap. iv. with cap. xliii. 



