dently weighed the matter well, and he has set down at some length the
reasons which led him to make this choice. "Thus, acting under the reasons
aforesaid (the family associations), I resolved to go to Gallarate, in
order that I might have the enjoyment of four separate advantages which it
offered. Firstly, that in the most healthy air of the place I might shake
off entirely the distemper which I had contracted in Milan. Secondly, that
I might earn something by my profession, seeing that then I should be free
to practise. Thirdly, that there would be no need for me to pine away
while I beheld those physicians, by whom I reckoned I had been despoiled,
flourishing in wealth and in the high estimation of all men. Lastly, that
by following a more frugal way of life, I might make what I possessed last
the longer. For all things are cheaper in the country, since they have to
be carried from the country into the town, and many necessaries may be had
for the asking. Persuaded by these arguments, I went to this place, and I
was not altogether deceived, seeing that I recovered my health, and the
son--who was to be reft from me later on by the Senate--was born to
me."[56]

Employment at Gallarate was, however, almost as scarce as it had been at
Sacco, wherefore Jerome found leisure in plenty for literary work. He
began a treatise on Fate; but, even had this been completed, it would
scarcely have filled the empty larder by the proceeds of its sale. More
profitable was some chance employment which was given to him by Filippo
Archinto,[57] a generous and accomplished young nobleman of Milan, who was
ambitious to figure as a writer on Astronomy, and, it may be remarked,
Archinto's benefactions were not confined to the payment for the hack work
which Jerome did for him at this period. Had it not been for his
subsequent patronage and support, it is quite possible that Cardan would
have gone under in the sea of adversity.

In spite of the cheapness of provisions at Gallarate, and of occasional
meals taken gratis from the fields, complete destitution seemed to be only
a matter of days, and just at this crisis, to add to his
embarrassments--though he longed earnestly for the event--Lucia was
brought to bed with her first-born living child on May 14, 1534. The
child's birth was accompanied by divers omens, one of which the father
describes, finding therein some premonition of future disaster. "I had
great fear of his life until the fifteen