[Illustration:  FERRARA.]

He appoints Francesco da Brossano, citizen of Milan, his heir, and desires him, not only as his heir, but as his dear son, to divide into two parts the money he should find—­the one for himself, the other for the person to whom it was assigned.  “It would seem by this,” says De Sade, “that Petrarch would not mention his daughter by name in a public will, because she was not born in marriage.”  Yet his shyness to name her makes it singular that he should style Brossano his son.  In case Brossano should die before him, he appoints Lombardo da Serigo his eventual heir.  De Sade considers the appointment as a deed of trust.  With respect to his little property at Vaucluse, he leaves it to the hospital in that diocese.  His last bequest is to his brother Gherardo, a Carthusian of Montrieux.  He desires his heir to write to him immediately after his decease, and to give him the option of a hundred florins of gold, payable at once, or by five or ten florins every year.

A few days after he had made this will, he set out for Rome.  The pleasure with which he undertook the journey made him suppose that he could support it.  But when he reached Ferrara he fell down in a fit, in which he continued thirty hours, without sense or motion; and it was supposed that he was dead.  The most violent remedies were used to restore him to consciousness, but he says that he felt them no more than a statue.

Nicholas d’Este II., the son of Obizzo, was at that time Lord of Ferrara, a friend and admirer of Petrarch.  The physicians thought him dead, and the whole city was in grief.  The news spread to Padua, Venice, Milan, and Pavia.  Crowds came from all parts to his burial.  Ugo d’Este, the brother of Nicholas, a young man of much merit, who had an enthusiastic regard for Petrarch, paid him unremitting attention during his illness.  He came three or four times a day to see him, and sent messengers incessantly to inquire how he was.  Our poet acknowledged that he owed his life to the kindness of those two noblemen.

When Petrarch was recovering, he was impatient to pursue his route, though the physicians assured him that he could not get to Rome alive.  He would have attempted the journey in spite of their warnings, if his strength had seconded his desires, but he was unable to sit his horse.  They brought him back to Padua, laid on a soft seat on a boat.  His unhoped-for return caused as much surprise as joy in that city, where he was received by its lords and citizens with as much joy as if he had come back from the other world.  To re-establish his health, he went to a village called Arqua, situated on the slope of a hill famous for the salubrity of its air, the goodness of its wines, and the beauty of its vineyards.  An everlasting spring reigns there, and the place commands a view of pleasingly-scattered villas.  Petrarch built himself a house on the high ground of the village, and he added to the vines of the country a great number of other fruit-trees.