use me to be removed therefrom forthwith. Confounded at
receiving such an impudent and audacious reproof at the hands of my own
kindred, I knew not what to do or say, or what reply I should make; nor
could I divine for what reason this unseemly and grievous affront had been
put upon me. It afterwards came to light that the letter was written in
order to serve as an occasion for fresh attacks; for, before many days had
passed, another letter came to me bearing the name of one Fioravanti,
written in the following strain. This man was likewise shocked for the
sake of the city, the college, and the body of professors, seeing that a
report had been spread abroad that I was guilty of abominable offences
which cannot be named. He would call upon a number of his friends to take
steps to compel me to consider the public scandal I was causing, and would
see that the houses where these offences were committed should be pointed
out. When I read this letter I was as one stupefied, nor could I believe
it was the work of Fioravanti, whom I had hitherto regarded as a man of
seemly carriage and a friend. But this letter and its purport remained
fixed in my mind and prompted me to reply to my son-in-law; for I believed
no longer that he had aught to do with the letter which professed to come
from him; indeed I ought never to have harboured such a suspicion, seeing
that both then and now he has always had the most kindly care for me; nor
has he ever judged ill of me.

"I called for my cloak at once and went to Fioravanti, whom I questioned
about the letter. He admitted that he wrote it, whereupon I was more than
ever astonished, for I was loth to suspect him of crooked dealing, much
more of any premeditated treachery. I began to reason with him, and to
inquire where all these wonderful plans had been concocted, and then he
began to waver, and failed to find an answer. He could only put forward
common report, and the utterances of the Rector of the Gymnasium, as the
source of them."[203]

Cardan goes on to connect the foregoing incident, by reasoning which is
not very clear, with what he maintained to have been a veritable attempt
against his life. "The first act of the tragedy having come to an end, the
second began, and this threw certain light upon the first. My foes made it
their special care that I, whom they held up as a disgrace to my country,
to my family, to the Senate, to the Colleges of Milan and Pavia, to the
Council of Profess