gain, once when I was in Venice on the birthday of the Virgin, I lost
some money at dicing, and on the day following all that was left me went
the same way. This happened in the house of the man with whom I was
gambling, and in the course of play I noticed that the cards were marked,
whereupon I struck him in the face with my dagger, wounding him slightly.
Two of his servants were present at the time; some spears hung all ready
from the beams of the roof, and besides this the house door was fastened.
But when I had taken from him all the money he had about him--his own as
well as that which he had won from me by cheating, and my cloak and the
rings which I had lost to him the day before--I was satisfied that I had
got back all my possessions. The chattels I sent home by my servant at
once, but a portion of the money I tossed back to the fellow when I saw
that I had drawn blood of him. Then I attacked the servants who were
standing by; and, as they knew not how to use their weapons and besought
my mercy, I granted this on the condition that they should unlock the
door. Their master, taking account of the uproar and confusion, and
mistrusting his safety in case the affair should not be settled forthwith
(I suspect he was alarmed about the marked cards), commanded the servants
to open the door, whereupon I went my way.

"That very same evening, while I was doing my best to escape the notice of
the officers of justice on account of the wound I had given to this
Senator, I lost my footing and fell into a canal, having arms under my
cloak the while. In my fall I did not lose my nerve, but flinging out my
right arm, I grasped the thwart of a passing boat and was rescued by those
on board. When I had been hauled into the boat I discovered--wonderful to
relate--that the man with whom I had lately played cards was likewise on
board, with his face bandaged by reason of the wounds I had given him.
Now of his own accord he brought out a suit of clothes, fitted for
seafaring, and, having clad myself in them, I journeyed with him as far as
Padua."[43]

Cardan's life from rise to set cannot be estimated otherwise than an
unhappy one, and its least fortunate years were probably those lying
between his twenty-first and his thirty-first year of age. During this
period he was guilty of that crowning folly, the acceptance of the
Rectorship of the Gymnasium at Padua, he felt the sharpest stings of
poverty, and his life was overshadowed by di