son had been present, would he and the other persons who had eaten
thereof have recovered so quickly? Cardan next went on to argue that,
whatever motive may have swayed Gian Battista at this juncture, it could
not have been the deliberate intent to kill his wife, because forsooth the
wretched youth was incapable of deliberate action of any sort. He could
never keep in the same mood for four-and-twenty hours at a stretch. He
nursed alternately in his heart vengeance and forgiveness, changing as
discord or peace ruled in his house. Cardan showed what a life of misery
the wretched youth had passed since his marriage. Had this life continued,
the finger of shame would have been pointed at him, he must have lost his
status as a member of his profession, and have been cut off from the
society of all decent people; nay, he would most likely have died by the
hand of one or other of his wife's paramours. This was to show how
powerful was the temptation to which the husband was exposed, and again he
sang the praises of poison as an instrument of "removal"; because if
effectively employed, it led to no open scandal.

He next brought forward the simple and unsophisticated character of the
accused, and the physical afflictions which had vexed him all his life,
giving as illustrations of his son's folly the headlong haste with which
he had rushed into a marriage, his folly in giving an ineffectual dose, if
he really meant to poison his wife, in letting his plot be known to his
servant, and in confessing. Lastly, Cardan had in readiness one of his
favourite portents to lay before the Court. When Brandonia's brother had
come into the house and found his father and sister sick through eating
the cake, he suspected foul play and rushed at Gian Battista and at Aldo
who was also there, and threatened them with his sword; but before he
could harm them he fell down in a fit, his hand having been arrested by
Providence. Providence had thus shown pity to this wretched youth, and now
Cardan besought the Senate to be equally merciful.

Cardan's pleas were all rejected; indeed such issue was inevitable from
the first, if the Senate of Milan were not determined to abdicate the
primary functions of a judicial tribunal. Gian Battista was condemned to
death, but a strange condition was annexed to the sentence, to wit that
his life would be spared, if the prosecutors, the Seroni family, could be
induced to consent. But their consent was only to be gain