hat, had I been minded to take service under Brissac, the King's
lieutenant, I might have enjoyed a salary of one thousand crowns a year.
Shortly afterwards Guglielmo Cassanate, the Archbishop's physician,
arrived in Lyons and brought with him three hundred other golden crowns,
which he handed to me, in order that I might make the journey with him to
Scotland, offering in addition to pay the cost of travel, and promising me
divers gifts in addition. Thus, making part of our journey down the
Loire, I arrived at Paris. While I was there I met Orontius; but he for
some reason or other refused to visit me. Under the escort of
Magnienus[143] I inspected the treasury of the French Kings, and the
Church of Saint Denis. I saw likewise something there, not so famous, but
more interesting to my mind, and this was the horn of a unicorn, whole and
uninjured. After this we met the King's physicians, and we all dined
together, but I declined to hold forth to them during dinner, because
before we sat down they were urgent that I should begin a discussion. I
next set forth on my journey, my relations with Pharnelius and Silvius,
and another of the King's physicians,[144] whom I left behind, being of a
most friendly nature, and travelled to Boulogne in France, where, by the
command of the Governor of Sarepont, an escort of fourteen armed horsemen
and twenty foot-soldiers was assigned to me, and so to Calais. I saw the
tower of Caesar still standing. Then having crossed the narrow sea I went
to London, and at last met the Archbishop at Edinburgh on the
twenty-ninth of June. I remained there till the thirteenth of September. I
received as a reward four hundred more gold crowns; a chain of gold worth
a hundred and twenty crowns, a noble horse, and many other gifts, in order
that no one of those who were with me should return empty-handed."[145]

The Archbishop's illness might in itself have supplied a reason for his
inability to travel abroad and meet Cardan as he had agreed to do; but the
real cause of his change of plan was doubtless the condition of public
affairs in Scotland at the beginning of 1552. In the interval of time
between Cassanate's first letter to Cardan and the end of 1551, the Regent
had half promised to surrender his office into the hands of the Guise
party in Scotland, wherefore it was no wonder that the Primate,
recognizing how grave was the danger which threatened the source of his
power, should have resolved that, sick