XIX.
It is well known what happened to the celebrated Vesabe, successive physician to Charles V. and to Philip II. of Spain, his son. Being persuaded that a Spanish Nobleman whom he attended was really dead, he asked the permission of opening him, which was granted. But he had scarcely plunged the instrument into the body of the unfortunate man, when he remarked some signs of returning life. In effect, he found, on opening his bosom, the heart still palpitating. The relations of the deceased, informed of the accident, were not satisfied with pursuing him as a murderer; they dragged him, as a man guilty of sacrilege, before the tribunal of the Inquisition.
As the fault was notorious, the judges of this tribunal were for condemning him to the punishment attached to the impiety. But fortunately for him, the King of Spain, by his authority and entreaties, delivered him from this certain danger, on condition of his expiating his crime by a voyage to the holy-land. But the unfortunate Vesabe did not long enjoy the pardon which he thus obtained. The Venetian senate having sent for him to fill the place of Falloppe, a violent tempest overtook him on his passage, and cast him on the island of Zante, where after wandering about for several days in the deserts, and suffering all the rigours of hunger, he ended his life deplorably in 1564, at the age of fifty eight.