fall upon himself."[1] Niccolini replied with ill-concealed indignation: "It would not become me to speak of this subject to Galileo while he is my guest; I would rather bear the expense myself, which only comes to fourteen or fifteen scudi a month, everything included; so that if Galileo should remain here the whole summer, that is six months, the outlay for him and his servant would amount to about from ninety to a hundred scudi."[2]
Galileo, who had no idea that his generous protector, Niccolini, had even had to go into unpleasant questions about his support, was entertaining the most confident hopes of a successful and speedy termination of his trial. Although his letters of this period are unfortunately not extant,[3] we see from the answers of his correspondents what sanguine accounts he sent them. Geri Bocchineri wrote on 12th May:
"I have for a long time had no such consolatory news as that which your letter of the 7th brought me. It gives me well-founded hopes that the calumnies and snares of your enemies will be in vain; and in the end, the annoyances involved in the defence, maintenance, and perhaps even increase, of your reputation, can be willingly borne, as you undoubtedly have borne them, since you have gained far more than you have lost by the calamity that has fallen upon you! My pleasure is still more enhanced by the news that you expect to be able to report the end of the affair in the next letter." [4]
But many a post day was to pass over, many a letter from Galileo to be received, before his trial was to come to the conclusion he so little anticipated.
On 10th May he was summoned for the third time before the Holy Tribunal, where Father Firenzuola, the Commissary-General of the Inquisition, informed him that eight days were allowed him in which to write a defence if he wished
