JEROME CARDAN 139 



traces of independent judgment. Sir John Cheke, the 

 King's former preceptor, and afterwards Professor of 

 Greek at Cambridge, had received him with all the courtesy 

 due to a fellow-scholar, and probably introduced him at 

 Court. Cheke was a Chamberlain of the Exchequer, and 

 just about this time was appointed Clerk to the Privy 

 Council, wherefore he must have been fully acquainted 

 with the aims and methods of the opposing factions about 

 the Court. His fellow-clerk, Cecil, was openly opposed 

 to Northumberland's designs, and prudently advanced a 

 plea of ill health to excuse his absence from his duties : 

 but Cheke at this time was an avowed partisan of the 

 Duke, and of the policy which professed to secure the 

 ascendency of the anti-Papal party. Cardan, living in 

 daily intercourse with Cheke, might reasonably have 

 taken up the point of view of his kind and genial friend ; 

 but no, he evidently rated Northumberland, from 

 beginning to end, as a knave and a traitor, and a 

 murderer at least in will. 



When he quitted England in the autumn of 1552 

 Cardan did not shake himself entirely free from English 

 associations. In an ill-starred moment he determined 

 to take back to Italy with him an English boy. 1 He 

 was windbound for several days at Dover, and the man 

 with whom he lodged seems to have offered to let him 

 take his son, named William, aged twelve years, back 

 to Italy. Cardan was pleased with the boy's manner 

 and appearance, and at once consented ; but the adven- 

 ture proved a disastrous one. The boy and his new 



1 In the prologue to Dialogus de Morte^ Opera, torn. i. p. 673, he 

 gives a full account of this transaction. Of the boy himself he 

 writes :" hospes ostendit mihi filium nomine Guglielmum, setatis 

 annorum duodecim, probum, scitulum, et parentibus obsequentem. 

 Avus paternus nomine Gregorius adhuc vivebat, et erat Ligur : 

 pater Laurentius, familia nobili Cataneorum." 



