ainly enamoured of him. Any one of the four
would have been acceptable as a daughter-in-law, but he declared that now
he would insist upon having full information as to the antecedents of any
other bride his son might have selected, before admitting her to the
shelter of his roof. Over and over again had he counselled Gian Battista
that he must on no account marry in haste, or without his advice, or
without making sure that his income would be sufficient to support the
responsibilities of the married state; rather than this should happen, he
would willingly allow the young man to keep a mistress in the house for
the sake of offspring, for he desired beyond all else to rear
grandchildren from Gian Battista, because he nursed the belief that, as
the son resembled his grandfather Fazio, so the son's children would
resemble their grandfather--himself. When he was questioned, Gian Battista
declared he knew nothing about the report, and was fully as astonished as
his father; but two days later Gian Battista's own servant came to the
house, and announced that his master had been married that same
morning,[184] but that he knew not the name of the bride. Cardan now
ascertained that Gian Battista's disinclination for matrimony had arisen
from the fact that he had been amusing himself with a girl who was nothing
else than an attractive and finely-dressed harlot, named Brandonia Seroni,
the last woman in all Milan whom he could with decency receive into his
house. And the pitiful story was not yet complete. In marrying her the
foolish youth had burdened himself with her mother, two or more sisters,
and three brothers, the last-named being rough fellows without any calling
but that of common soldiers. The character of the girl herself may be
judged by the answer given by her father Evangelista Seroni to Cardan
during the subsequent trial. When Seroni was asked whether he had given
his daughter as a virgin in marriage, he answered frankly in the negative.

Cardan at once made up his mind to shut his door upon the newly-married
pair; but the unconquerable tenderness he felt for Gian Battista urged him
on to send to the young man all the ready money he had saved. After two
years of married life, two children, a boy and a girl, were born: husband
and wife alike were in ill health, and every day brought its domestic
quarrel. In the meantime sinister whispers were heard, set going in the
first instance by the mother and sister of Brandonia