, that Gian Battista
was the father neither of the first nor of the second child. They even
went so far as to designate the men to whom they rightly belonged, and
contrived that this rumour should come to the ears of the injured husband.
The consequence of their malignant tale-bearing was a quarrel more violent
than ever, and the rise of a resolution in Gian Battista's mind to rid
himself at all hazard of the accursed burden he had bound upon his
shoulders.

Until the end of 1559 Cardan continued to live in Milan, vexed no doubt by
the ever-present spectacle of the wretched case into which his beloved son
had fallen. He records how the young wife, unknown to her husband, handed
over to her father the wedding-ring which he (Cardan) had given to his
son, along with a piece of silken stuff, in order to pledge them for
money. This outrage, joined to the certain conviction that his wife was
false to him, proved a provocation beyond the limits of Gian Battista's
patience, and finally incited him to make a criminal attempt upon
Brandonia's life. Hitherto he had been earnest enough in his desire to rid
himself of his wife so long as she raged against him; but, on the
restoration of peace, his anger against her would vanish. Now he had lost
all patience; he laid his plans advisedly, and set to work to execute them
by enlisting the cooperation of the servant who had been with him ever
since his marriage, and by taking to live with him in his own house
Seroni, his wife, and son and daughter.[185] It cannot be said that the
would-be murderer displayed at this juncture any of the traditional
Italian craft in setting about his deadly task. The day before the attempt
was made he took out of pawn the goods which Evangelista Seroni had
pledged, and promised his servant a gift of clothes and money if he would
compass the death of Brandonia, who was still ailing from the effects of
her second confinement. To this suggestion the servant, who had also
warned Gian Battista of his wife's misconduct, at once assented.

But even on the very day when he had fully determined to make his essay in
murder he vacillated again and again, and it seemed likely that Brandonia
would once more be reprieved. When he entered her bed-chamber, full of his
resolve to strike for freedom, he found her lying gravely ill with an
attack of fever, shivering violently, and cold at the extremities. His
anger forthwith vanished, and his hand was stayed; but as if urged