to one in such high position: he
feared the treacheries and tumults and the transfer of power which must
ensue, and drew a picture of all the evils which might befall himself,
evils which he was in no mood to face. Where should he look for protection
amongst a strange people, who had little mercy upon one another and would
have still less for him, a foreigner, with their ruler a mere boy, who
could protect neither himself nor his guest? It might easily come about
that his return to Italy would be hindered; and, supposing the crisis to
come to the most favourable issue, what would he get in return for all
this danger and anxiety? He calls to mind the cases of two soothsayers who
were foolish enough to predict the deaths of princes, Ascletarion, and a
certain priest, who foretold the deaths of Domitian and Galeazzo Sforza;
and describes their fate, which was one he did not desire to call down
upon himself. Although his forecast as to Edward's future was incomplete
and unsatisfactory, he foresaw what was coming upon the kingdom from the
fact that all the powers thereof, the strong places, the treasury, the
legislature, and the fleet, were gathered into the hands of one man
(Northumberland). "And this man, forsooth, was one whose father[157] the
King's father had beheaded; one who had plunged into confusion all the
affairs of the realm; seeing that he had brought to the scaffold, one
after the other, the two maternal uncles of the King. Wherefore he was
driven on both by his evil disposition and by his dread of the future to
conspire against his sovereign's life. Now in such a season as this, when
all men held their tongues for fear (for he brought to trial whomsoever he
would), when he had gained over the greater part of the nobles to his side
by dividing amongst them the spoil of the Church; when he, the most bitter
foe of the King's title and dignity, had so contrived that his own will
was supreme in the business of the State, I became weary of the whole
affair; and, being filled with pity for the young King, proved to be a
better prophet on the score of my inborn common-sense, than through my
skill in Astrology. I took my departure straightway, conscious of some
evil hovering anigh, and full of tears."[158]

The above is Cardan's view of the machinations of the statesmen in high
places in the English Court during the last months of Edward's life.
Judged by the subsequent action of Northumberland it is in the main
correct