of manhood showed themselves, whereupon the Cardinal of Lenoncourt, at that time bishop of Châlons, gave him the name of Germain. This personage is still unmarried, and has a large thick beard. We could not see him because he was away at the village where he lived. A popular song, sung by the girls of the place, warns all girls against taking long strides lest they should become men like Marie Germain. Report says that Ambrose Paré has taken note of this tale in his book on surgery. It is certainly true, and testimony thereof was given to M. de Montaigne by the chief officials of the town. We left this place after breakfast on Sunday morning and travelled to Bar,[17] a distance of nine leagues.
M. de Montaigne had already visited this town. He now came upon nothing fresh worth noting, save the extraordinary outlay which a certain priest, the dean of the place, had made, and was still making, over public works. His name was Gilles de Trèves.[18] He has built a chapel of marble, with paintings and ornaments, the most sumptuous of any in France; and besides this, he has erected and almost furnished a house which is the finest in the town, of the fairest structure, the best planned and furnished, elaborated with rich carved work and most comfortable as a residence. This he desires to make a college, to endow the same, and set it to work at his own charges. From Bar, where we took our dinner on the Monday morning, we journeyed four leagues to Mannese,[19] where we slept.
This was a small village, where M. de Montaigne was forced to halt by reason of a colic, for which same cause he put aside the plan he had formed of seeing Toul, Metz, Nancy, Joinville, and St. Disier, towns scattered along the route, and repaired direct by diligence to the baths of Plombières. From Mannese we departed on the Tuesday morning, and took our dinner at Vaucouleur, a place a league farther on. Passing along the banks of the Meuse we came to Donremy-sur-Meuse, seven leagues from Vaucouleur, where was born the famous Maid of Orleans named Jeanne Day or Dallis. Her family was afterwards ennobled by the king,[20] who made a grant of arms which was shown to us; azure with a straight sword, crowned and with a golden hilt, and two _fleurs-de-lis_ in gold beside the sword aforenamed. A certain receiver of Vaucouleur gave a painted escutcheon of the same to M. de Caselis. The front of the little house where she was born is all painted with her feats, but the colour is much decayed through age. There is also a tree beside a vineyard which they call “_l’arbre de la Pucelle_,” but there is nothing remarkable about it. That evening we slept, after travelling five leagues, at Neufchasteau.
Here in the church of the Cordeliers are many ancient tombs, three or four hundred years old, erected to the memory of the nobles of the province. The inscriptions thereon all run in these terms: “Here lies a certain one who died when the tale of years was passing through the twelve hundreds,” &c.[21] M. de Montaigne went to see the library, which contains many books, but none of them rare; and a well from which water is drawn by vast buckets which are turned by stepping with the feet on to a wooden plank attached to a wheel: the axle of the wheel aforesaid being a piece of wood to which the well rope is fastened. He had seen elsewhere others like it. Beside the well is a great stone trough, six or seven feet above the brim, and the bucket rises and empties water into this trough without further help, and lowers itself when empty. This trough is raised so high that by means of leaden pipes the water of the well finds its way to the refectory and kitchen and bath-house. It likewise springs forth out of masses of stone, built to counterfeit natural fountains. We breakfasted in the morning at Neufchasteau, and after travelling six leagues we supped at Mirecourt.
This is a fair little town where M. de Montaigne heard tidings of M.
and Madame de Bourbon who dwelt near thereto. On the morning of the morrow after breakfast he went a quarter of a league or so aside from our route to see the nuns of Poussay. This was one of those religious houses, of which there are many in these parts, established for the maintenance of women of good family. Each one has pension by way of sustenance, of one, two, or three hundred crowns, some less, some more, and a separate dwelling where each one can live apart. There little girls are taken in to nurse; no obligation of virginity is laid upon any except those holding office, to wit, the abbess, the prioress, and certain others. They have liberty to dress as they will, like other ladies, except that they wear on their heads a white veil; and, in church during the Mass, they wear a large cloak which they leave behind them in their seat in the choir. The inmates can receive any acquaintance who may come to seek them, whether to urge them to matrimony or for any other reason. Any one who is so minded may sell her annuity to whomsoever she will, provided that this person be of the class and condition required. For certain of the nobles of the district have this duty laid upon them, to wit, that they must be satisfied by a sworn declaration as to the lineage of the candidate whom any one may bring forward. It is not unbecoming for one nun to hold three or four annuities. During their sojourn they attend religious services the same as in other places, and the greater part of them end their days there without desiring change of condition.
On leaving this place we rode five leagues to supper at Espine,[22] a well-built little town where entry was denied to us for that we had journeyed by Neufchasteau where the plague had raged a short time ago.
On the next day in the morning we reached Plommieres[23] in time for dinner, a journey of four leagues.
From Bar-le-Duc onwards the leagues are again of the Gascon measure, and as one approaches Germany they become longer and longer, so that, at last, they wax double, or even treble. We entered Plommieres on Friday the 16th of September 1580, at two o’clock in the afternoon.
It is on the borders of Lorraine and Germany, situated in a chasm between divers lofty scarped hills, which close it in on all sides. At the bottom of this valley several springs, cold and hot as well, flow forth. The hot water has neither smell nor taste, and is by nature as hot as any one can endure to drink: so much so that M. de Montaigne was obliged to pass it from glass to glass. Only two of the springs are drunk. One which flows from the eastward and forms the bath, which they call the Queen’s Bath, leaves in the mouth a certain sweet taste, not unlike liquorice, and no disagreeable aftertaste. But after very careful attention, M. de Montaigne declared that a slight flavour of iron might be detected therein. The other spring which rises at the base of the mountain opposite, and of which M. de Montaigne drank only one day, is slightly harsh, and has the flavour of alum. The habit of the place is to take a bath two or three times a day. Some take their meals in the bath, where they are cupped and scarified, and do not drink the waters except after a purge. If they drink at all, they take a glass or two in the bath. They deemed the practice of M. de Montaigne a mighty strange one, to wit that, without any preparatory medicine, he should take nine glasses of water, amounting to a potful, every morning at seven, and dine at mid-day; that on the days when he bathed--every other one--he should fix upon four o’clock, and only stay about an hour in the water. And on these days he willingly went without his supper.
We saw some men cured of ulcers and others of pimples on the body.
The wonted course is a month at least, and rooms are let most readily in May. Few people frequent the place after the month of August, by reason of the cold, but we found much company there still, because the heat and drought had been abnormally prolonged. Amongst others, M.
de Montaigne gained the friendship and acquaintance of the Seigneur d’Andelot of Franche Conté,[24] the son of the master of the horse of the Emperor Charles V. He himself was chief field-marshal in the army of Don John of Austria, and he held the governorship of St. Quentin after we lost the place. One portion of his beard and one side of his eyebrow had become white, and he told M. de Montaigne how this change had come about in a moment of time, on a certain day when he was filled with distress over the death of one of his brothers, whom the Duke of Alva had put to death as an accomplice of the Counts Egmont and Horn.
He was sitting resting his head upon his hand, which touched the places beforenamed, wherefore his attendants, when they saw what had happened to him, deemed that some flour must have fallen upon him by accident.
He has been like this ever since.
This bath was formerly used only by Germans, but for several years past the people of Franche Conté and France have come in great numbers.
There are several baths, and the principal one is built oval in shape, after the fashion of an ancient edifice. It is thirty-five paces long and fifteen wide. The hot water rises from several springs, and cold water is made to trickle down into the bath so that the heat may be moderated according to the taste of those who use it. The places in the bath are set out side by side by bars suspended like those in our stables, and planks are laid over the top so as to keep off the heat of the sun and the rain. The visitors in this place maintain a singular propriety of carriage, and it is reckoned indecent for men to bathe naked or with less clothing than a little jacket, or for women to wear less than a chemise. We lodged at the “Angel,” which is the best house, because it communicates with two of the baths. The charge for lodging, when several rooms were engaged, was no more than fifteen sous a day.
The hosts supply all wood for this charge, but the country is so rich therein that it costs nothing but the cutting, and the hostesses do exceedingly well in the kitchens. When the high season comes a lodging like this one would cost a crown a day, and be cheap at the price.
Horse feed is seven sous a day, and everything else the visitor needs to buy is good and reasonable in price. The chambers are not sumptuous, but very convenient, and, by reason of the numerous galleries, there is never need to pass through one to reach another; but the wine and bread are bad. The people are worthy, independent, sensible, and obliging.
All the laws of the land are religiously observed, and every year they write afresh on a tablet, hung up in front of the principal bath, the laws there inscribed in the German and French tongues as follows:-- “Claude de Rynach, knight, lord of St. Balesmont, Montureulz en Ferette, Lendacourt, &c., councillor and chamberlain of our sovereign lord monseigneur the Duke &c., and his balli of the Vosges.
“Let it be known that for securing the comfort and quietude of the many ladies and other persons, coming from divers countries to these baths of Plommieres, we have (according to the intention of his Highness) decreed and ordained as follows: “Let it be known that corrective discipline for light offences shall remain as heretofore in the hands of the Germans, who are enjoined to enforce observation of all ceremonies, regulations, and police, which have hitherto been used for the seemly maintenance of the baths aforesaid, and for the punishment of offences committed by those of their own nation, without granting exception to any person by the payment of ransom, and without using blasphemy or other irreverent remarks against the Catholic Church and the traditions of the same.
“It is forbidden to all people, of whatever quality, condition, region, or province they may be, to use provocation in insulting language tending to lead to quarrels: to carry arms while at the baths aforesaid: to give the lie: to put hand to arms under pain of severe punishment as breakers of the peace, rebels and disobedient to his Highness.
“Also it is forbidden to all prostitutes and immodest women to enter the baths, or to be found within five hundred paces of the same under penalty of a whipping at the four corners of the town. And the householders who shall receive or conceal them shall incur the pain of imprisonment and arbitrary fine.
“The same penalty will fall on those who shall use any lascivious or immodest discourse to any ladies, or damsels, or other women and girls who may be visiting the baths, or touch them in a manner unbecoming, or enter or quit the baths in ribald fashion, contrary to public decency.
“And because by the boon of the baths aforenamed God and nature have afforded us cure and relief in many cases, and because decent cleanliness and purity are necessary in order to keep off the many contagions and infections which might well engender in such a place, it is expressly commanded to the governor of these baths to take the utmost care, and to inspect the persons of those who frequent the same by day and by night; to make them keep decency and silence during the night, making no noise, nor scandal, nor horse-play. And if any person will not render obedience the governor shall forthwith carry the affair before the magistrate, so that an exemplary punishment may be given. Beyond this it is prohibited to all persons coming from infected places to repair to Plommieres under pain of death. It is expressly laid upon all mayors and officers of justice to have careful watch over the place; and upon all the townsfolk, to furnish us with billets containing the names, surnames, and residence of all the people they may have taken into their lodgings, under pain of imprisonment. All the ordinances above declared have been this day published in front of the great bath of Plommieres aforesaid, and copies of the same, both in French and in German, affixed to the nearest and most prominent portion of the bath, and signed by us, Balli of the Vosges: Given at Plommieres the fourth day of May in the year of our Lord 15--.”
We tarried at this place from the 18th to the 27th of September. M.
de Montaigne drank the water eleven days, nine glasses on eight days, and seven glasses the other three, and took five baths. He found the water easy to drink, and the effects of the same all he could wish.
Appetite, digestion, and sleep were alike good, and his general health suffered no injury from these waters. On the sixth day he was seized with a colic, more violent than his ordinary attacks, and with pain on the right side, where he had never hitherto been troubled, save once in the course of a very trifling attack at Arsac. This seizure lasted four hours, and while it was on him he felt plainly the working and the movement of the stone in the urethra and the lower part of the stomach.
The first two days he passed two small stones from the bladder, and gravel occasionally afterwards. When he left these baths he deemed that he had still in his bladder both the stone of this attack of colic, and certain other small ones of which he had felt the downward passage.
He judged the qualities of these waters, with regard to his own case, to be much the same as those of the high spring of Banieres,[25] where there is a bath. He found the temperature of the bath very mild, indeed, children of six months or a year old are wont to sprawl about therein. His perspiration was copious and gentle. He directed me for the gratification of his landlady to let her have the escutcheon of his arms on wood--this being the custom of the country--which escutcheon a painter of the place did for a crown, and the hostess caused it to be hung up on the outside wall.
On the 27th of September, after dinner, we set forth and traversed a mountainous country, the soil of which resounded under our horses’ feet as if we were going over a vault, or even as if men were beating drums all around us. At the end of two leagues we stopped for the night at Remiremont, a fair little town, where we found excellent lodging at the “Unicorn”: indeed, in all the towns of Lorraine, and this was the last of them, the traveller finds as convenient lodging and as excellent fare as in any part of France. At Remiremont is that famous abbey of religious women of the same rank as those of Poussai before described.
They claim, as against M. de Lorrene,[26] the sovereignty and ownership of this town. M. d’Estissac and M. de Montaigne paid them a visit very soon after their arrival, and inspected several of the sets of lodgings, all of which were very seemly and well furnished. The abbess, of the family of D’Inteville, had lately died, and they were about to elect another to the office, the sister of the Count de Salmes being a candidate. They also went to see the _doyenne_, a member of the house of Lutre, a lady who had done M. de Montaigne the honour of sending to greet him while he was at Plommieres, despatching also a supply of artichokes and partridges, and a barrel of wine for his use. Messieurs were informed that certain neighbouring villages are bound to deliver on the day of Pentecost every year two bowls of snow; and, failing these, a cart equipped with four white oxen. It is said that they never fail to find snow for their rent, but it is certain that, when we were there, the heat was as great as is felt at any season in Gascony. The nun’s dress is a white veil, worn on the head, and a little lappel of crape over it. Their robes are black, made of any stuff and pattern they may choose, while on the premises, but otherwise they may wear colours, petticoats to their liking, and shoes and pattens; and dress their hair under the veil in ordinary fashion. Each nun must be descended from at least four noble houses on the father’s side and the mother’s as well. Messieurs took leave of the ladies at eventide. Early on the morrow we set forth, and after we had mounted, the _doyenne_ sent a gentleman to M. de Montaigne begging him to go to her. He went, and this visit cost us an hour’s delay. This society of ladies gave him procuration to deal with their affairs at Rome. After we left we followed for some distance a lovely and pleasant valley, skirting the banks of the Moselle, and reached Bossan,[27] four leagues distant, in time for dinner.
This is a little ugly town, the last place where French is spoken. Here M. d’Estissac and M. de Montaigne, clad in garments of linen which were lent to them, went to see the silver mines which M. de Lorenne possesses in this place, situated some two thousand paces up a mountain gorge. After dinner we took a road through the mountains, where they pointed out to us, amongst other things, the nests of the goshawks perched on inaccessible rocks [the birds aforesaid being worth about three testoons], and the source of the Moselle. We arrived, after travelling four leagues, in time for supper at Tane.[28] This is a handsome town, the first over the German frontier, and subject to the Emperor. The following morning we found ourselves in a fine wide plain, bounded on the left hand by slopes full of vineyards, fair and excellently cultivated, and of such extent that the Gascons who were with us declared they had never seen the like. This was the time of vintage.
II SWITZERLAND We travelled two leagues farther to dinner at Melhouse,[29] a fair little Swiss town of the canton of Basle. There M. de Montaigne went to visit the church, the people of this town being no longer Catholics.
This he found, as elsewhere in the country, in good condition, for scarcely any change has been made, except with regard to the altars and the images, the churches themselves having suffered no defacement.
He was vastly pleased to behold the liberty and order prevalent among these people; how our host of the “Grapes” returned from the council board of the town, held in a magnificent palace, over which he had presided, to do service to his guests at table; and to hear how this man, without any following or office, who poured out the wine at dinner, had formerly led four troops of footmen into France under Casimir to fight against the king, and was now the king’s pensioner, having received three hundred crowns per annum for the last twenty years.[30] While M. de Montaigne was sitting at table, this gentleman talked to him, without the least pretentiousness or affectation, of his condition and way of life; and how he and others found that their religion was no bar to their serving the king, even against the Huguenots. This we heard likewise from others whom we met in our travels, and also at the siege of La Fère[31] more than fifty of these people served with us, and that they made no scruple of being married by a priest to Catholic women, who were never required to change their religion. After dinner we set out travelling through a fine country, abundant, very fertile, and ornamented with divers pretty villages and hostelries, and arrived at Basle, three leagues’ journey, in time for bed.
Basle is a fine town, about the size of Blois, and divided into two parts, for the Rhine flows through the midst under a large wooden bridge of great width. The city authorities did the honour to M.
d’Estissac and M. de Montaigne of sending a present of wine by one of their officers, who made a long speech to them as they sat at table. M.
de Montaigne made a similar reply in the presence of certain Germans and Frenchmen, who were seated with them round the stove, the host serving as interpreter. The wines were very good. We went in separate parties to the house of a certain physician, named Felix Plater, which was painted and decorated in delicate French fashion with the utmost care. This house the aforesaid physician had built for himself in very large, ample, and sumptuous style. Amongst other work he was preparing a book of simples, which was then well advanced, and it was his practice, instead of painting like other botanists the plants according to their natural colours, to glue the same upon paper with so great care and dexterity that the smallest leaves and fibres should be visible, exactly as in nature. He can turn the leaves of this book without fear of any plant falling out, and he showed us certain simples which had been fastened therein more than twenty years ago. At this house, and in the public school as well, we saw entire skeletons of men.
They have a custom in the town, but not in the suburbs, that the clocks shall strike one hour in advance of the true time, to wit, if it should strike ten, the time would be really nine. They say the reason of this custom is that in past years an attempt against the city miscarried on account of a similar fault of the town clock. It is called _Basilee_,[32] not from the Greek word, but because _Base_ in German means _passage_. We saw many learned men: Grynæus,[33] and the author of the _Theatrum_, and Platerus the physician already mentioned, and Francis Hottoman.[34] The two last-named supped with M. de Montaigne the day after his arrival. From answers given to certain questions he put, M. de Montaigne gathered that there was in Basle considerable religious discord, some calling themselves Zwinglians, some Calvinists, and others Martinists, while many, as he was informed, had in their hearts a hidden liking for the Roman religion. The ordinary form of administering the sacrament is to place it in the mouth, but at the same time any one, who so wishes, may reach out his hand for it, the ministers being chary of stirring up afresh the antagonisms of religion. The interiors of the churches are like those I have heretofore described. The exteriors are still garnished with images and with ancient tombs unmutilated, and inscribed with prayers for the souls of the departed. The organs, the bells, the crosses on the bell towers, and all the different images in the painted windows are whole as ever they were, as well as the benches and the seats of the choirs.
The Calvinists place the baptismal font where the high altar stood aforetime, and build at the head of the nave another altar to serve for their Lord’s Supper; the one at Basle being beautifully arranged. The church of the Carthusians is a very fine building, preserved and kept up most carefully; the same furniture and ornaments are still there, a circumstance which the reformers bring forward as a testimony of their good faith, seeing that they gave a promise to maintain these at the time of their agreement. The bishop of the place, who is strongly inimical to them, lives outside the city, and holds the greater part of the country people to the ancient religion. He enjoys an income of fifty thousand livres from the city, and thus the succession to the bishopric is kept up.
Certain of the people lamented to M. de Montaigne over the dissolute carriage of the women, and the prevalent drunkenness of the city. We witnessed an operation for rupture done by a surgeon on the child of a poor man, who was very roughly handled by the operator, and likewise saw the very fine public library overlooking the river in a pleasant situation. We spent one more day at Basle, and on the next after dinner we took the road along the Rhine for some two leagues. Then we left it on our left hand and traversed a fertile country. In these parts springs abound, and no village or crossroads lack fair running water; in Basle indeed they number some three hundred. Balconies are so common in all houses, even in Lorraine, that in building they always leave between the windows of the chambers doorways looking over the streets, with the view of letting a balcony be built thereto at some future time. All through the country beyond Espine even the smallest cottages have glass windows, and the good houses are well fitted with the same, excellently arranged both within and without, the glass being made in various fashions. There is abundance of iron, and the workers thereof are very skilful, greatly in advance of ourselves, and furthermore the smallest church will always have a magnificent clock and dial. Their work in tiles is excellent, and on this account the roofs of the houses are decorated with a medley of tiles, glazed in various colours, and the floors of their chambers are the same.
Moreover it would be impossible to find more delicate work than that of their stoves, which are of pottery. They make much use of pine wood and are skilled carpenters, their casks being all carven and many of them varnished and painted. They are very lavish in stoves, that is to say, in the public dining-rooms. In all rooms of this sort, which are always well furnished, there will be five or six tables fitted with benches at which all the guests will dine together, each party at its own particular table. The smallest houses of entertainment will have three or four well-appointed rooms of this kind. They are pierced for many windows which are filled with rich glass, but on the whole it seems that the hosts concern themselves more with the dinner than with aught else, for the bed-chambers are often mean enough, the beds never curtained and always placed three or four together, the rooms being without chimneys, and only heated from the general stove. Beyond this there is no sign of a fire, and they take it very ill if a stranger should go into their kitchens. There is much want of cleanliness in their bed-chambers, and he who gets a white sheet may deem himself fortunate: moreover, it is their fashion never to cover the pillow with sheeting; there is rarely any other covering than a feather quilt, which is very dirty.
They are good cooks, of fish especially. In fine weather or in storm their houses have no other protection from the weather than bare glass windows without wooden shutters. The houses are well windowed and very light, both below and in the chambers, the windows being rarely closed even at night. Their service at table differs greatly from ours.
They never mix water with their wine, and they are justified in this practice, for their wines are so thin that our gentlemen found them less potent than those of Gascony when diluted. They are, however, very light and delicate.
The body-servants dine either at their master’s table or at one close by, one valet being enough to attend to the high table, seeing that each gentleman has always his own goblet or silver cup beside him, wherefore the servant only needs to fill this as soon as it may be empty, without moving it. For this purpose they use a vessel of pewter or wood with a long spout. As to the meat, they serve only two or three dishes thereof, cut in slices. Unlike our fashion, they serve in the same dish divers sorts of well-dressed meats; sometimes indeed they bring to table one course with the other, using certain appliances of iron made with long legs, in which they carry one dish above and one below. Some of their tables are round and some square, but all are very wide, so that it is very difficult to place the dishes thereon.
The valet, however, can easily manage dishes arranged as above named, letting them follow, two by two, up to six or seven changes.
A fresh dish is never served till the foregoing one shall have been finished; and as to the plates, as soon as the service of viands has come to an end and the dessert is ready, the valet puts on the table a large wicker basket on a vessel of painted wood into which the chief person present first puts his plate; the others follow suit, the order of rank being closely observed. The valet removes this vessel without difficulty, and then serves the fruit in two dishes all mixed together like the other courses. At this stage they often serve radishes, and with your roast meat you will most likely have been offered cooked pears. Amongst other edibles they give a high place to the crayfish, and honour it by serving it in a covered dish, a tribute they pay to hardly any other viand. The whole country abounds in these fish, and they are served every day, and rated as a delicacy.
They take no care to wash on sitting down or on rising from table.
Most people go to a little laver, set in a corner of the room as in a monastery. In most places they use wooden plates and pots, clean and white as they can be made; but in some they set on the wooden plates others of pewter, until they serve the fruit, for which wood is always used. They serve this wooden ware only from custom, for in the same houses where it is seen they give their guests silver goblets in any quantity. They clean and polish their wooden furniture with great care and even the boards of their chambers. The beds are so high that steps are generally needed to mount the same, and nearly everywhere small beds are placed beside the large ones.
Seeing that they are such excellent smiths, nearly all their spits are made to revolve by springs, or by weights like clocks, or even by wooden fans fixed in the chimney and made to turn by the draught of the smoke and the vapour of the fire. These appliances cause the roast to revolve gently and slowly. They over-roast their meat somewhat. These smoke-jacks[35] are only worked in large hostelries which burn great fires, as at Baden, and they turn at a uniform and steady pace. After leaving Lorrenne we found the chimneys built in a fashion different from ours. They build up the hearths in the middle or in the corner of the kitchen, using almost the entire width of the place for the chimney flue. This is a vast opening seven or eight paces square, which becomes narrower as it rises to the top of the house. This structure gives them the chance to place in position their large wheel, which, in chimneys built like ours, would occupy so much room in the flue that the smoke would not be able to find a passage. The lightest repasts last three or four hours, because of the method of service aforesaid, and in sooth these people eat vastly more leisurely than we do, and in more healthful manner. There is everywhere abundance of provisions, of flesh and fish, and every table is sumptuously spread--at least this was our experience. On Fridays no flesh is served, and report says that in these parts the people willingly abstain therefrom entirely, the practice of fasting being similar to that in France round about Paris.
As a rule they give their horses more fodder than they can eat. We travelled four leagues and arrived in time for bed at Hornes.
This is a small village in the duchy of Austria. On the morrow, as it was Sunday, we went to Mass, and observed that in church the women sat on the left-hand side of the church and the men on the right, without mixing. The women have several rows of seats, set reversed, one behind the other, of a convenient height for sitting, and upon these they kneel, and not upon the ground, wherefore they seem to be upright.
The men have also pieces of wood in front of them to lean upon, and they only kneel upon the chairs which are in front of them. Instead of joining the hands as we do at the elevation, they stretch them out apart, and open and keep them thus raised until the priest exhibits the pyx. They assigned to M. d’Estissac and M. de Montaigne the third bench on the men’s side, while those of less worship in our company were afterwards given seats amongst the lesser folk; and the same on the women’s side. It seemed to us that the front rows were not held in the highest honour. The interpreter and guide whom we engaged at Basle, a sworn messenger of the city, went to the Mass with us, and showed by his carriage that he had come there with great longing and devout feeling. After dinner we crossed the river Arat[36] to Broug, a fair little town belonging to the seigniory of Berne, and beyond that we went to see an abbey which Queen Catherine of Hungary gave to the lords of Berne in 1524,[37] where are buried Leopold, Archduke of Austria, and a great number of gentlemen who were overthrown by the Swiss in 1386. Their arms and names are there inscribed, and their remains kept with great care. M. de Montaigne held converse with the Bernese gentleman in charge of the place, who ordered that everything should be shown to him. In this abbey slices of bread and soup are always ready at hand for any wayfarer who may demand the same, and no refusal has ever been made by the heads of the abbey. From this place we crossed by a boat, which is attached by an iron pulley to a rope stretched high above the Reix,[38] a river flowing out of the Lake of Lucerne, and arrived, after a journey of four leagues, at Baden, a little town with a suburb adjoining, where there are baths.
Baden is a Catholic town, under protection of the eight[39] Swiss cantons, in which divers great gatherings of princes have taken place.
We did not lodge in the town but in the suburb, which lies at the foot of the mountain on the bank of the Limmat, a stream, or rather torrent, which flows out of the Lake of Zürich. There are two or three uncovered public baths, which are frequented only by poor folk. Of the other kind there are great number within the houses, divided into small private rooms, both closed and open, which are let with the lodgings, and are as dainty and well fitted as possible, hot water being drawn