Читать книгу Giordano Bruno - J. Lewis McIntyre - Страница 15

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Return to France, October 1585.When Mauvissière was recalled, Bruno in all probability sailed with him. It had been decided, unjustly, as Mauvissière thought, to recall him to France in 1584; but owing to his wife’s health and perhaps his claims on the French treasury, he secured a postponement till the following year, on condition he should do his best for Queen Mary and her son with Elizabeth, “but not mix himself up with any of the plots against Elizabeth.” In October 2, 1585, he was still in London, for he wrote to his friend Archibald Douglas, the Scottish Ambassador, from London on that date; the following letter, however, was from Paris (Nov. 3, 1585) and told a pathetic story.[79] On his way across (Bruno with him, we may suppose) he had been “robbed of all he had in England, down to his shirt, of the handsome presents given him by the Queen, and of his silver plate: nothing was left, either to him or to his wife and children, so that they resembled those exiled Irish who solicit alms in England, with their children by their side.” He had lent money also to the Queen of Scots, and was in great trouble concerning it, “for neither her officers nor her treasurer possessed a sou, nor did they speak of repayment.” The unfortunate ambassador had fallen upon evil days: he was accused of having spoken ill of his successor, Chateauneuf, and had to write, as the report went, to Elizabeth, to unsay his insinuations. In December 1586, he wrote to Archibald Douglas of his wife—the Maria de Bochetel, whom Bruno praises—having died in childbirth. It would be interesting to know how Bruno fared in the robbery of Mauvissière’s goods. At least we may assume that he arrived in Paris with very little worldly goods, but with part of the manuscript of a great work on the Universe (the De Immenso) in his possession, during the month of October 1585.