JEROME CARDAN 41 



baptized. The sun shone brightly into the bed-chamber : 

 it was between the hours of eleven and twelve in the 

 forenoon ; and, according to custom, we were all 

 gathered round the mother's bed except a young 

 servant, the curtain was drawn away from the window 

 and fastened to the wall, when suddenly a large wasp 

 flew into the room, and circled round the infant. We 

 were all greatly afeard for the child, but the wasp did 

 him no hurt. The next moment it came against the 

 curtain, making so great a noise that you would have 

 said that a drum was being beaten, and all ran towards 

 the place, but found no trace of the wasp. It could not 

 have flown out of the room, because all eyes had been 

 fixed upon it. Then all of us who were then present 

 felt some foreboding of what subsequently came to pass, 

 but did not deem that the end would be so bitter as it 

 proved to be." l 



The impulse which drives men in desperate straits to 

 seek shelter in the streets of a city was as strong in 

 Cardan's time as it is to-day. At Gallarate the last 

 coin was now spent, and there was an extra mouth to 

 feed. There seemed to be no other course open but 

 another retreat to Milan. Archinto was rich in literary 

 ambitions, which might perchance stimulate him to 

 find farther work for the starving scholar : and there 

 was Chiara also who would scarcely let her grandchild 

 die of want. The revelation which Cardan makes of 

 himself and of his way of life at this time is not one to 

 enlist sympathy for him entirely ; but it is not wanting 

 in a note of pathetic sincerity. " For a long time the 

 College at Milan refused to admit me, and during these 

 days I was assuredly a spendthrift and heedless. In 

 body I was weakly, and in estate plundered by thieves 

 1 De Vita Propria, ch. xxxvii. p. 119. 



