Any other vessel would have been attacked and pillaged; but Petrarch had no fear; and, indeed, he was stopped in his river passage only to be loaded with presents.

He arrived in safety at Padua, on the 9th of June, 1368.
The Pope wished much to see our poet at Rome; but Petrarch excused himself on account of his health and the summer season, which was always trying to him.

But he promised to repair to his Holiness as soon as his health should permit, not to ask benefices of the holy father, but only his blessing.

During the same year, we find Petrarch complaining often and painfully of his bodily infirmities.

In a letter to Coluccio Salutati, he says:--"Age, which makes others garrulous, only makes me silent.