The day for their inauguration was fixed, such was the superstition of the times, by an astrologer; and on that day Petrarch was commissioned to make to the assembled people an address suited to the ceremony.

He was still in the midst of his harangue, when the astrologer declared with a loud voice that the moment for the ceremony was come, and that it would be dangerous to let it pass.

Petrarch, heartily as he despised the false science, immediately stopped his discourse.

The astrologer, somewhat disconcerted, replied that there was still a little time, and that the orator might continue to speak.

Petrarch answered that he had nothing more to say.