If he had fallen back, he must have crushed his rider.

Petrarch was not afraid, for he was not aware of his danger; but Galeazzo Visconti and his people dismounted to rescue the poet, who escaped without injury.
The Legate treated Petrarch, who little expected it, with the utmost kindness and distinction, and, granting all that he asked for his friends, pressed him to mention something worthy of his own acceptance.
Petrarch replied: "When I ask for my friends, is it not the same as for myself?
Have I not the highest satisfaction in receiving favours for them?
I have long put a rein on my own desires.

Of what, then, can I stand in need ?" After the departure of the Legate, Petrarch retired to his _rus in urbe_.

In a letter dated thence to his friend the Prior of the Holy Apostles, we find him acknowledging feelings that were far distant from settled contentment.

"You have heard," he says, "how much my peace has been disturbed, and my leisure broken in upon, by an importunate crowd and by unforeseen occupations.