JEROME ASSAILED.

169

life as a fighter among soldiers, and closed it as a fighteramong scholars. He was born seventeen years beforeCardan, on the banks of the same lake of Guarda withinwhich Jerome had once been nearly drowned, and fromwhich Brother Luca had drawn the delicious carp thatwere to him not less agreeable than mathematics. Thebirthplace was the castle of Ripa, belonging to his father,Benedict, who had done good service in war to KingMathias Corvinus . Two days after his birth he had feltthe pressure of the times; the castle was attacked by theVenetians, taken and plundered, the mother, with theinfant just born, and the other children, saving their livesby flight. At twelve years old the future scholar, JuliusCccsar Scaliger, became page to the Emperor Maximilian .Him he served for seventeen years, proving himself a finesoldier on all occasions, and particularly at the battle ofRavenna, wherein he lost his father and his elder brother,Titus. He was not then named Scaliger, and it is doubt-ful whether he had at any time a right to take the name.He claimed to be descended from the princely family ofLa Scala to which Verona had belonged, and consideredthat Verona was his heritage whenever he could get it.On the other hand, it is declared positively that the Scalafamily had been extinct for some generations. His father,Boniface, “ a terrible man,” the grandson calls him—■indeed the whole family was terrible—Boniface called