JEROME CARDAN 35 



the forecourt of this garden, the door whereof was open, 

 and there was another door on the opposite side, when 

 lo! I beheld before me a damsel clad in white. I 

 embraced and kissed her ; but before I could kiss her 

 again, the gardener closed the door. I straightway 

 begged him earnestly that he would open it again, but 

 I begged in vain ; wherefore, plunged in grief and 

 clinging to the damsel, I seemed to be shut out of the 

 garden. 



"A little time after this there was a rumour in the 

 town of a house on fire, and I was roused from sleep 

 to hurry to the spot. Then I learned that the house 

 belonged to one Altobello Bandarini, 1 a captain of the 

 Venetian levies in the district of Padua. I had no 

 acquaintance with him, in sooth I scarcely knew him 

 by sight. Now it chanced that after the fire he hired 

 a house next door to my own, a step which displeased 

 me somewhat, for such a neighbour was not to my 

 taste ; but what was I to do ? After the lapse of a few 

 days, when I was in the street, I perceived a young 

 girl who, as to her face and her raiment, was the 

 exact image of her whom I had beheld in my dream. 

 But I said to myself, * What is this girl to me ? If 

 I, poor wretch that I am, take to wife a girl dowered 

 with naught, except a crowd of brothers and sisters, it 

 will be all over with me; forasmuch as I can hardly 

 keep myself as it is. If I should attempt to carry her 

 off, or to have my will of her by stealth, there will of a 

 surety be some tale-bearers about; and her father, being 

 a fellow-townsman and a soldier to boot, would not sit 

 down lightly under such an injury. In this case, or in 

 that, it is hard to say what course I should follow, for 



1 He gives a long and interesting sketch of his father-in-law 

 in De Utilitate, p. 370. 



