JEROME CARDAN 219 



manuscript fell from the table down upon the floor, and 

 then flew by itself up to the cornice of the room, where it 

 hung, fixed to the woodwork. Greatly amazed, I called 

 for Rodolfo, and pointed out to him this marvel. He 

 did not indeed see it fly up, and at that time I was 

 ignorant as to what it might foretell, for I had no fore- 

 boding of the many ills which were about to molest me. 

 But now I see that the meaning of this portent must 

 have been that, after the approaching shipwreck of my 

 fortunes, my bark would be sped along with a more 

 favouring breeze. It was during the month following, 

 unless I am mistaken, that, when I was once more 

 writing a letter to Cardinal Morone, I looked for a 

 certain powder-box which had been missing for some 

 long time, and, when I lifted up a sheet of paper in 

 order to powder it with dust gathered up from the floor 

 of the room, there was the powder-box, hidden beneath 

 the sheet. How could it have come there on the level 

 writing-desk? This sign confirmed the hope I had 

 already conceived of the Cardinal's wisdom and humanity; 

 that he would plead with the Pope, the best of men, in 

 such wise that I should find a prosperous end to my 

 toilsome life." 1 



The blow thus foreshadowed fell on October 6, 1570, 

 when he was suddenly arrested and put under restraint. 

 He speaks of a bond which he gave for eighteen hundred 

 gold crowns ; and says that, while he was in hold, all 

 his estate was administered by the civil authorities. 

 Rodolfo Sylvestro was constantly with him during his 

 incarceration, and on January i, 1571, he was released, 

 just at nightfall, and allowed to return to his own house. 

 While he was in prison in the month of October some 

 mysterious knockings at the door supplied him with a 

 1 De Vita Propria.) ch, xliii. p. 165. 



