Page 28 [28]
6 LETTERS OF ERASMUS ‘ [1514
saeuit dolor nullis explicandus verbis, maxime si corpus inflexissem.
Erectus minus affligebar, sed tamen ipse me non poteram erigere
semel incuruatus. Eram illic in agris, nulla diuersoria nisi frigidis¬
15 sima et rusticissima, et aberam a Gandauo sex maximis passuum
milibus. Sensi ambulatione minus saeuire malum, et tamen longius
erat iter quam vt vel a sano pedibus confici posset.
Cogita quid mihi hic fuerit animi. Voui diuo Paulo me com¬
mentarios in epistolam ad Romanos absoluturum, si contingeret hoc
20 periculi euadere. Aliquanto post cum desperarem, coactus sum
experiri num equum possem conscendere; conscendi praeter spem,
ambulo lente, fero; iubeo ministrum progredi paulo celerius, fero,
tametsi non sine cruciatu, Gandauum peruenio, descendo ex equo,
ingredior cubiculum ; ibi dolor se totum prodit, maxime a quiete.
25 Stare non poteram, nisi a duobus vtrinque sublatus in altum, idque
valide; quod si vel paulum me remisissem, intolerabilis redibat
dolor. Nec sedere poteram, iacens nec tantulum me poteram mouere.
Accerso medicum et pharmacopolam. Ita modis omnibus affectus
fui vt nihil nisi de morte cogitarem,
30 Mane dum aluum paro deiicere, paulum conor me mouere lecto ;
procedit, sto, moueo, sedeo, nullo sustinente. Ago gratias. Deo et
Paulo. Manet adhuc sensus mali, maxime si corpus distorqueam.
Itaque Gandaui dies aliquot commoratus sum, amicis retinentibus
et malo ita suadente: de quo nondum securus sum. Neque enim
35 vulgare fuit, quicquid fuit. Offendi hic Praesidem Flandriae, virum
in omni literarum genere doctissimum, et consiliarios duos, Antonium
Clauam et Gulielmum Vualam; nam Caesarem et alios quosdam
antea noueram. Nunc Hantuuerpiam pergam, si modo per morbum
licebit; et vbicunque locorum ero, reddam te de valetudine mea
40 certiorem. Bene vale.
Principem Veriensem salutaui Bergis yna cum matre, sed offendi
sollicitum ; nam vxor a partu nonnihil aegrotabat, et nunciabantur
ex Selandia parum laeta. Salutaui illum tuo nomine et admonui de
26. me add. H.
18. commentarios] Cf. Ep. 296. 157. 530). On 4 June 1532 he was created
35. Praesidem Flandriae] John Le a member of the Council of Flanders,
Sauvage; see Ep. 410. as his father and grandfather had
37. Clauam] Ep. 175. 10 n. been before him. In 1539, during
Vualam} Wm. de Waele, Lord the troubles in Ghent, an attempt was
of Hansebeke, a prominent citizen of made to arrest him, but he seems tohave
Ghent. In mid-August 1514 he was escaped, See Hoynck, Analecta Belgica,
elected first sheriff of the court known 1748, vol. Mi PP 78 tals, 20440. OI
as La Keure; and at some period he p.470; and Lond. xxvii. 5, LB. 1230.
visited the Holy Land and became a Caesarem] Robt. de Keysere ; see
Kt. of Jerusalem. By 2 June 1518 Epp. 175 and 525.
he was Treasurer and ‘Garde des 41. matre] See Ep. 80 introd.
Chartres’ of Flanders Gachard, ii. 42. partu] See Ep. 9g introd.