[Sidenote: CALVIN LEAVES ORLEANS.] One day, probably at the beginning of April 1528, about the Easter holidays, Calvin received a letter from Noyon. He opened it: it contained sad news! his father was seriously ill. He went at once to Duchemin in great agitation: 'I must depart,' he said. This friend, and many others, would have wished to keep him in a place where he had become so useful; but he did not hesitate. He must go to his father; he would, however, only stay as long as was necessary; as soon as the sick man was better, he would come back. 'I promise you to return shortly,' he said to Duchemin.[57] Calvin, therefore, bade farewell to his cherished studies, to his beloved friends, and those pious families in which he was advancing the kingdom of God, and returned to Picardy. We have but few particulars of his sojourn at Noyon. Assuredly his filial piety indulged at his father's bedside in what has been termed with reason the sweetest form of gratitude. Yet the weak condition of the episcopal secretary was prolonged, without any appearance of imminent danger. A question began to rise up in the young man's heart: shall he go, or shall he stay?[58] Sometimes, when seated by the sick man's pillow during the watches of the night, his thoughts would transport him to Orleans, into the midst of his studies and the society of his friends; he felt himself impelled, as by a vigorous hand, towards the places that were so dear to him, and he made in his mind all the arrangements necessary for his return.[59]... Suddenly his father's disease grew worse, and the son did not quit the sufferer's bedside. The old secretary, 'a man of sound understanding and good counsel,' says Beza, was much respected by those around him, and love for the author of his days was profoundly engraven in the young man's soul. 'The title of father belongs to God,' he said; 'when God gives it to a man, he communicates to him some sparks of his own brightness.'[60] [Sidenote: CALVIN'S FIRST LETTER.]