They passed a day in his house to rest themselves, and, when they went away, left a letter in his library, telling him they had crossed the Alps to come and see him, but that, having missed him, as soon as they had finished an excursion which they meant to make, they would return and settle with him the means of their living together.

Petrarch, on his return to Parma, wrote several interesting letters to Mainardo.

In one of them he says, "I was much grieved that I had lost the pleasure of your company, and that of our worthy friend, Luca Christino.

However, I am not without the consoling hope that my absence may be the means of hastening your return.

As to your apprehensions about my returning to Vaucluse, I cannot deny that, at the entreaties of Socrates, I should return, provided I could procure an establishment in Provence, which would afford me an honourable pretence for residing there, and, at the same time, enable me to receive my friends with hospitality; but at present circumstances are changed.