To his beloved daughter-in-law, the estimable daughter of the learned Dr.
Vitali, of Bologna, the old man left his deceased wife's jewels, together
with the plate and linen of the house, mentioning her in the most
affectionate terms.
All of which surprised the legal gentlemen and the relatives and
connections and their wives and feminine following not a little, and what
put the finishing stroke to the disgust of these good folk, especially to
such of them as were mothers, was that this son and heir of an honoured
and wealthy house had married a foreigner, a frivolous Italian, and that
too without so much as an intimation of his intention.
With the will there was a letter from the dead man to his son and one to
the worthy lawyer. In the latter he requested his counsellor to notify
his son, Melchior Ueberhell, of his death, and, in case of his son's
return home, to see him well and fairly established in the position which
belonged to him as the heir of a Leipsic burgher and as Doctor of the
University of Padua.
These letters were sent by the first messenger going south over the Alps,
and that they reached Melchior will be seen from the fresh surprises
contained in his answer.
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