i 7 8 JEROME CARDAN 



had known, if he had merely been suspicious that the 

 cake was poisoned, would he have let a crumb of it pass 

 his lips ; and if any large quantity of poison had been 

 present, would he and the other persons who had eaten 

 thereof have recovered so quickly ? Cardan next went 

 on to argue that, whatever motive may have swayed 

 Gian Battista at this juncture, it could not have been 

 the deliberate intent to kill his wife, because forsooth the 

 wretched youth was incapable of deliberate action of 

 any sort. He could never keep in the same mood for 

 four-and-twenty hours at a stretch. He nursed alter- 

 nately in his heart vengeance and forgiveness, changing 

 as discord or peace ruled in his house. Cardan showed 

 what a life of misery the wretched youth had passed 

 since his marriage. Had this life continued, the finger of 

 shame would have been pointed at him, he must have 

 lost his status as a member of his profession, and have 

 been cut off from the society of all decent people ; nay, 

 he would most likely have died by the hand of one 

 or other of his wife's paramours. This was to show 

 how powerful was the temptation to which the husband 

 was exposed, and again he sang the praises of poison as 

 an instrument of " removal " ; because if effectively 

 employed, it led to no open scandal. 



He next brought forward the simple and unsophisti- 

 cated character of the accused, and the physical afflic- 

 tions which had vexed him all his life, giving as 

 illustrations of his son's folly the headlong haste with 

 which he had rushed into a marriage, his folly in giving 

 an ineffectual dose, if he really meant to poison his wife, 

 in letting his plot be known to his servant, and in 

 confessing. Lastly, Cardan had in readiness one of his 

 favourite portents to lay before the Court. When 

 Brandonia's brother had come into the house and found 



