a number of scholars over their interpretation of Aristotle, while demonstrating that their mathematics was flawed. Perhaps tiring of intellectual duels, the following year Crichton entered the service of the Duke of Mantua, and may have become tutor to the Duke's headstrong son Vincenzo Gonzaga (although some sources suggest that Crichton served only as a member of the ducal council, and did not actually teach the prince). Death in Mantua What is beyond dispute is that while Crichton was in the Duke's employ, Vincenzo Gonzaga became hugely jealous of him, probably from a combination of his father's strong regard for the young prodigy as well as Crichton replacing Vincenzo as the lover of the prince's former mistress. On the night of 3 July 1582, after leaving this lady's dwelling in Mantua, Crichton was attacked in the street by a gang of masked ruffians. He bested all but one with his sword, until the last man removed his mask to reveal the group's ringleader, Vincenzo Gonzaga himself. Tradition holds that, on seeing Vincenzo, Crichton instantly dropped to one knee and presented his sword, hilt first, to the prince, his master's son. Vincenzo took the blade and with it stabbed Crichton cruelly through the heart, killing him instantly. James Crichton of Cluny was then in his twenty-second year. Reputation Much of Crichton's posthumous reputation comes from a romantic 1652 account of his life written by Sir Thomas Urquhart (1611–1660), contained within an unclassifiable work (The Jewel) that is characterized by exaggeration and hyperbole. There is little or no contemporary evidence for many of the stories surrounding him. That said, his existence is supported by a few letters and his actual abilities were probably impressive, enough that his story has not been lost through the centuries since his death. Samuel Johnson devoted the August 14, 1753 issue of the periodical, The Adventurer, to the story of Crichton, writing, ""Among the favourites of nature that have from time to time appeared in the world, enriched with various endowments and contrarieties of excellence, none seems to have been [more] exalted above the common rate of humanity, than the man known about two centuries ago by the appellation of the Admirable Crichton." A historical novel entitled Crichton was published by the English writer William Harrison Ainsworth in 1836. "The Admirable Crichton" is referred to by Charles Dickens in his 1859 story collection The Haunted House. The