Hernan was a sickly child, and probably would have died had not his good nurse, María de Estévan, secured in his behalf Saint Peter, thenceforth his patron.[56] With his mother’s milk he drank courage[57] and intelligence, and he was schooled in the virtues and the vices of the day. In his youth he was headstrong, but chivalrous, and he revelled in his superiority over other boys. The brain-ferment, chronic throughout his life, set in at an early day. He was keenly sensitive to disgrace. As he developed somewhat of archness and duplicity, he was deemed best fitted for the profession of the law. At the age of fourteen, accordingly, with such preparation as the slender means of the father would allow, he was sent to Salamanca, whose university, though past the zenith of its fame, was still the leading seat of learning for conservative Spain. Two years of restraint and intellectual drudgery, during which time he lived with his father’s brother-in-law, Nuñez de Valera, sufficed to send him home surfeited with learning, to the great disappointment of his family.[58] A frolicsome and somewhat turbulent disposition, more marked since his college career than previously, made his return all the more unwelcome. Not that his studies, despite his aversion to them, had been wholly neglected; he could boast a smatter of Latin, which indeed proved of advantage afterward, giving him influence over many of those with whom he associated. He had also acquired some knowledge of rhetoric, as is manifest in his letters and occasional verses.[59] At present, however, his intellectual talents were employed only in scribbling rhymes in aid of amorous intrigues, which were now his chief pursuit. Hence when arms possessed his fancy the parents did not repine, but were only too glad for him to enter service, as he seemed inclined, under the Gran Capitan, who was just then alluring to his standard the chivalry of Spain by brilliant achievements in Italy. There was, however, the glitter of gold in the Indies, and the appointment of Nicolás de Ovando,[60] as governor, turned the youth’s vacillating mind in that direction. Cortés had concluded to accompany the new governor, when one night, just before the sailing of the fleet, an accident intervened. While engaged in one of his intrigues he had occasion to climb a courtyard wall to gain the lady’s apartment. The wall crumbling beneath his weight threw him to the ground, and the noise brought to the door of an adjoining house a blustering Benedick, who, perceiving the situation of the gallant, and suspecting his own newly made wife, drew the sword with bloody intent. At the prayer of the suspected wife’s mother, however, the husband suspended vengeance. Before the scapegrace recovered from a fever brought on by the bruises received in this fall, the fleet of Ovando had sailed.