We arrived at Constance at four o’clock. This town, which is about the size of Châlons, belongs to the Archduke of Austria, and holds to the Catholic religion, though up to thirty years ago it was in the hands of the Lutherans, whom the Emperor Charles V. drove out by force. The churches still show signs of images, and the bishop is a gentleman of the country, who lives at Rome, and as a cardinal draws from this benefice an income of forty thousand crowns. There are canonries, too, of the church of Notre Dame, which are worth fifteen hundred crowns, and are held by men of gentle family. We saw one of these on horseback coming in from the country, attired gallantly like a gentleman-of-arms; and report says that in the town are many Lutherans. We ascended the clock tower, which is very high, and there found a man as fixed sentinel, who is shut therein and not suffered to quit his post, whatever may call him thence. They were constructing beside the Rhine a large covered building, fifty feet long and forty wide, or thereabouts, and fixing therein twelve or fifteen great wheels, by means of which they propose to raise continuously a large quantity of water up to a wooden tower, one storey higher, where will be an equal number of iron wheels (the lower ones are of wood), which will raise the water from the first floor to the one above. The water, having been lifted to the height of some fifty feet, will discharge itself by a large artificial channel and flow down into the town, and set several mills to work. The artisan who has the direction of this building had for his labour alone five thousand seven hundred florins, and wine to boot. In the deep water they were fixing a strong wooden erection all around to break the current; so that, when the force of the water should be moderated, they might be able to draw it upwards more easily. There was also an arrangement of machinery by which the whole system of wheelwork can be raised or lowered according to the level of the water.

At this point the stream is not called the Rhine, for by the upper part of the city it spreads out into a lake full four German leagues in width and five or six in length. There is a fine terrace overlooking this lake where merchandise is stored, and about fifty paces from the shore stands a finely-built lodge, where a sentinel is always on duty. A chain is here prepared, by which the way of access to the bridge may be closed, and high palisades are set, which enclose on both sides that part of the lake in which boats lie and take in cargo. Near the church of Notre Dame there is a conduit by which water from the Rhine higher up finds its way to the suburbs of the town.

We perceived that we were leaving behind us the country of the Swiss, for the reason that, shortly before we came to the entrance to the town, we saw several noblemen’s dwellings, such as are seldom or never seen in Switzerland; and as to the private houses, both in town and country, we found them beyond all comparison better than in France, and they seem to lack nothing except slate roofs. To speak more particularly of the hostelries, they might perhaps provide a somewhat better style of entertainment; moreover, with regard to certain deficiencies which we found in the service, these could not have been the result of poverty. What we had seen of their way of life in other respects forbade us to believe this, seeing that it is hard to name a place where they do not drink from fine silver cups, gilded and chased; wherefore, what seemed to us strange, was simply local custom. The country is very rich, especially in wine. To return to the town of Constance, we were badly lodged at the “Eagle,” and we got from our host a sample of the barbaric German arrogance and independence over the quarrel of one of our serving-men with our guide from Basle. And when the question came before the judges to whom the guide made an appeal, it chanced that M. de Montaigne asked the provost of the place, an Italian gentleman, married and settled there for a long time with full right of citizenship, whether the servants he had with him could give evidence on our behalf. The provost answered that they could, provided M. de Montaigne should have discharged them from his service. He might, of course, re-engage them immediately afterwards; a reply which seemed full of subtlety.

On the following day, Sunday, on account of this tumult, we only tarried until after dinner, and then changed our quarters to the “Pike,” where we fared excellently. The son of the captain of the town, who was brought up as a page in the household of M. de Meru,48 was always in attendance upon Messieurs at table and elsewhere. He did not know a word of French. The service at table is very often varied. They gave us here, and subsequently in other places, after the cloth was removed, other courses with our wine. The first what the Gascons call canaules, then spiced bread, and lastly white bread cut into slices, but still holding together. In the cuttings they put plenty of spices and salt, as also in the crust of the bread. There are many lepers in this country, the highways being full of them. The villagers give their workmen for mid-day meal large flat loaves,49 made with fennel, and spread upon these a mess of bacon, cut very small and mixed with cloves of garlic. The Germans, when they would do honour to a man, always place themselves on his left side, whatever seat he may occupy, and maintain that to sit on his right hand is to put an insult on him, saying that to show true deference to a man it is necessary to leave his right side free, so that he may easily put his hand to his arms. After dinner on the Sunday we quitted Constance, and after crossing the lake at a point about a league from the town, we reached Smardorff in time for bed, after travelling two leagues.

Smardorff50 is a small Catholic town. We had lodging at the “Standard of Cologne,” a post-house which is kept here for the Emperor’s route into Italy. There, as in other places, they fill the mattresses with the leaves of a certain tree, which serves the purpose better than straw and lasts longer. The town is surrounded by a wide plain of vineyard which produces excellent wine. On Monday, the 10th October, we started after breakfast; for M. de Montaigne was persuaded by the beauty of the day to change the plan he had made of going to Ravensburg, and make a day’s journey to Lindau instead. M. de Montaigne never took breakfast, but caused to be brought to him a piece of dry bread which he would eat during the journey, adding thereto occasionally such grapes as he could get on the road, the vintage being still in course of gathering in this region even up to the outskirts of Lindau. Their practice is to train the vines up on trellises, and they leave therein divers verdurous alleys which are delightful to the view. We passed through Sonchem,51 an imperial Catholic town on the bank of the Lake of Constance, to which all the wares of Ulm and Nuremburg and divers other places are brought in waggons, thence to be conveyed through the lake to the Rhine route. After travelling three leagues we arrived about three in the afternoon at Linde.52

The little town is situated some hundred paces out into the lake, which distance is traversed over a stone bridge. There is no other entrance, all the rest of the town being surrounded by the lake, which is at least a league in width, and on the other side rise the mountains of the Grisons. The lake and all the streams are low in winter and full in summer on account of the melting of the snow. All through these parts the women cover their heads with bonnets of fur like our skull-caps, each costing about three testoons;53 the outside being trimmed with some seemly grey fur, and the inside with lambs’-wool. The opening which in our caps is in front is in theirs behind, and through it may be seen their hair tucked up. Their favourite foot-gear is boots, and these are either red or white, each sort suiting the wearer not amiss. Both religions are followed. We went to see the Catholic cathedral, built in 866, where all things are as they have always been, and we saw also the church served by the Lutheran ministers. All the imperial towns have liberty in the matter of the two religions, Catholic and Lutheran, according to the leanings of the people, and they devote themselves more or less to that form which they prefer. At Lindau, from what the priest told M. de Montaigne, there are not more than two or three Catholics. The priests do not fail to draw their incomes and to perform the service, and the nuns who are there do the same. M. de Montaigne had some talk also with the minister, from whom he got but little information, except to learn that the common hatred against Zwingle and Calvin was prevalent here likewise. It seems clear that almost every separate place holds for its belief some particular view; and, under the authority of Martin, whom they hail as their head, they set up divers disputes on the interpretation of the meaning of Martin’s works.

We lodged at the “Crown,” a good house. Near the stone on the panelled wall there was a sort of wooden cage for the keeping of a vast number of birds. It was fitted with hanging perches made of copper wire, which gave room for the birds to shift from one end to the other. The furniture and woodwork of their houses is generally made of pine, the most common forest tree, but they paint and varnish and polish it carefully, and even use hair brushes for the furbishing of their chairs and tables. They have great abundance of cabbages, which they shred with a tool made for the purpose, and then salt the same in vessels for making soup in the winter. At this place M. de Montaigne made trial of the feather coverlets, such as they use in bed, and was full of praise thereof, finding them light and warm at the same time. It was a saying of his that people of fastidious taste had more occasion to complain when travelling of their bed furniture than of aught else, and he commended those who carried a mattress or curtains amongst the baggage when visiting strange countries.

As to fare at table, they have such vast abundance of provisions, and vary the service so widely in the matter of soups, sauces, and salads, that nothing in our own way of living can be found to equal it. They gave us soups made of quince, of apples cooked and cut into strips, and cabbage salad. They make pottage of all sorts, one of rice which they eat in common, having no separate service of this dish, an excellently flavoured one. The kitchens are incomparably superior to those of our great houses, and the sitting-rooms are better furnished than with us.

They have abundance of excellent fish, which is served at the table with the meat. Of trout they only eat the liver, and they have also great plenty of game, hares, and woodcocks, which they dress in a fashion differing from our own, but a good one all the same; indeed I have never met with meat so tender as that which was commonly set before us. They serve with the meat cooked plums and slices of apples and pears, sometimes putting the roast first and the soup last, and sometimes reversing this order. As to their fruits, they have only pears and apples, which are both good, and nuts and cheese. During the meat course they hand round a utensil, made either of silver or tin, having four compartments filled with divers sorts of spices. They also use cummin, or some similar grain with a hot stinging savour, as an admixture to their bread; this bread being made for the most part with fennel added thereto. After the meal they replace the glasses filled full on the table, and offer two or three sorts of eatables which serve to provoke thirst.

While he was travelling M. de Montaigne noted with regret three steps which he had neglected to take with regard to his journey. One was that he had not taken with him a cook, who might have learnt the particular methods of foreign lands, and some day at home have shown proof of his skill. The next was that he had not engaged a German valet, or joined himself to some gentleman of the country, for he felt it very irksome to be always at the mercy of a blockhead of a guide; and the last was that, before setting out, he had neither consulted those books which might have pointed out to him what rare and remarkable sights were to be seen in every place, nor included in his baggage a copy of Münster54 or some similar book. In sooth there was mixed up with his judgments a certain asperity and want of regard for his own country, against which for other reasons he harboured dislike and discontent:55 certain it is that he preferred the accommodation of these lands, without comparison, to those of France, and conformed to them so far as to drink his wine without water. In drinking he never took wine for its own sake, but simply out of courtesy. Travel is more costly in High Germany than in France: for at our reckoning a man with a horse will lay out at least one crown of the sun56 per diem. In the first place the innkeepers here charge for food at table d’hôte four, five, or six batzen. They make a separate item of everything, even the smallest refreshment that is taken before or after the two regular meals, wherefore the Germans as a rule quit their lodgings in the morning without drinking aught. Any additional service after the principal meals, and the wine consumed therewith—which is for them the chief expense—they reckon together. In sooth, when we consider the plentiful fare put on the table, and this especially applies to wine, even where it is exceedingly dear and brought from afar, I find the prices charged to be quite justified. They themselves have a way of urging the servants of their guests to drink, and make them keep at table two or three hours. The wine is served from large jugs, and it is reckoned a breach of good manners to let a cup be empty and not replenish it forthwith. They will never give water even to those who ask for it, except these should be persons of great worship. They add to the bill the oats eaten by the horses, and lastly the charge for the stable, which includes also the hay. A good point about them is that they ask at once what they mean to accept, and one gains naught by bargaining. They are boastful, quick-tempered, and drunken, but they are neither deceitful nor robbers, according to M. de Montaigne’s opinion. We departed after breakfast and made a journey of two leagues, and arrived at Vanguen57 at two in the afternoon.

Here a mishap befell our baggage mule, which injured itself, and compelled us in consequence to halt and to hire a cart for the next day at three crowns per diem, the driver, who had four horses, keeping himself in victual for this sum. Vanguen is a small imperial town which has always refused to harbour a congregation of any form of religion other than the Catholic. They make here scythes so famous that they are sent for sale as far as Lorrenne. M. de Montaigne left it on the morrow, to wit, on the morning of Wednesday, October 12th, and set out for Trent by the shortest route. We halted to dine at Isne,58 two leagues on our road, a small imperial town very pleasantly situated; and M. de Montaigne, according to his wont, went straightway to call upon a doctor of theology for the sake of discourse, and this doctor he brought in to dine with us. He found that all the people were Lutherans, and he went to visit the Lutheran church which, as with all the churches they occupy in the imperial cities, had been taken from the Catholic. While they were holding divers arguments concerning the Sacrament, M. de Montaigne bethought him how, during the journey, certain Calvinists had informed him that the Lutherans now intermix with the original tenets of Martin divers new errors, such as the “Ubi-quis me,” and maintain that the body of Christ is everywhere as well as in the Host; wherefore they fall into the same difficulty as do the Zwinglians, though by a different road, the one by limiting too much the bodily presence, and the other by a too lavish application of the words (for by their reasoning the Sacrament would be no privilege to the body of the Church or to those two or three just men gathered together). Moreover, the principal Lutheran arguments were that the divinity was inseparable from the body, wherefore the divinity being omnipresent the body must be omnipresent also. They declare, in the second place, that Jesus Christ, being bound to be always at the right hand of His Father, is omnipresent, seeing that the right hand of God, to wit, His power, is in all places. The doctor aforesaid gave strong denial to this imputation, and set up a defence against the same as against a calumny; but, indeed, M. de Montaigne gathered the impression that his defence was somewhat weak.

This doctor went afterwards in company with M. de Montaigne to visit a grand and sumptuous monastery, where Mass was being said, and he entered and bided there without removing his headgear until M. d’Estissac and M. de Montaigne had finished their prayers. They next went to view in a cellar of the abbey a long cylinder-shaped fragment of stone,59 which apparently had once formed part of a column. On it, written in easily legible Latin letters, was an inscription telling how the Emperors Pertinax and Antonius Verus had repaired all the roads and bridges for a distance of eleven thousand paces around Campidonium, that is to say, Kempten, whither we were bound for the night. This stone might have been set up to record some later repair of the road, for report says that this village of Isny is of no great antiquity. In any case, having inspected all the roads about Kempten, we could find no repairs worthy of such artificers, and there was not a single bridge. We certainly remarked that a way had been cut through some of the hills, but this work was not of prime importance.

Kempten, three leagues farther on, is a town as big as St. Foy, handsome, populous, and abounding in good lodgings. We stayed at the “Bear,” an excellent house. At our meals they brought in great silver vessels of various kinds (these in sooth were intended to serve merely as ornaments, being richly worked and covered with the arms of divers gentlemen), the sort of plate which is only to be seen in houses of high quality. Here it was that we were brought to see the truth of an observation which M. de Montaigne had made elsewhere, to wit, that if foreigners ignore certain usages favoured by ourselves, it is because they hold these usages in slight esteem. For instance, these people, though they possess vast store of pewter utensils as well scoured as those at Montaigne, will only make use of wooden platters, which indeed are both well made and well kept. In all these countries they put cushions on the seats in the evening, and nearly all the panelled ceilings of the apartments are vaulted half-moon fashion, which gives them a very graceful appearance. As to the linen, concerning which we had previously made certain complaints, we had no occasion to be dissatisfied; indeed, as far as my master was concerned,60 I never failed to procure enough of the same wherewith to fashion a pair of curtains for his bed, and whenever he happened to want an extra towel it was always given to him. In this town lives a certain merchant who carries on a traffic of a hundred thousand florins annually in linen. M. de Montaigne, on leaving Constance, would fain have visited that canton of Switzerland61 which supplies linen for the whole of Christendom, if there had not been four or five hours needed for crossing the lake and back to Lindau. This town (Kempten) is Lutheran, and here, as at Isne, the strange custom obtains that the Catholic church is most sumptuously served, notwithstanding the lack of worshippers. On the morrow, Thursday, a working day, the Mass was said at the abbey outside the town, as it is given in Notre Dame, at Paris, on Easter Day, with organ music, though none were present but priests. Those who dwell outside the imperial towns are not free to change their religion, and many in this case attend the service aforesaid on feast days. This is a very magnificent abbey.62 The abbot holds the same as a prince, and receives therefrom an income of fifty thousand florins yearly, the present abbot being of the house of Estain. All the brethren are of gentle birth. The abbey was founded in 783 by Hildegarde, the wife of Charlemagne, who is buried there and honoured as a saint; and her bones have been disinterred from the vault in which they were laid to be placed elsewhere in a shrine.

On the same Thursday morning M. de Montaigne went to the Lutheran church, which was similar to others of the same sect and of the Huguenots, except that close by the altar, which is at the head of the nave, there are several wooden benches, with stools below, so that those who receive the supper may kneel, as is their custom. M. de Montaigne found there two ministers, elderly men, of whom one preached in German to a scanty congregation. When he had finished they sang a psalm in German, to music differing somewhat from what we use. After each verse the fine organ, which had recently been erected, made a response in music, and whenever the preacher named the name of Christ he and all his hearers uncovered themselves. The sermon being finished, the other minister placed himself in front of the altar with his face towards the people, holding in his hand a book. A young woman with bare head and loosened hair approached him, and, after saluting him in the way these people use, remained standing before him. Soon afterwards a young man, an artisan with a sword by his side, presented himself, and stood beside the young woman. The minister spoke a few words into the ear of each, directed them both to repeat a paternoster, and then began to read from his book. There were certain ceremonies to be undergone by those seeking marriage, and next the minister made them take each other by the hand without kissing. When this ceremony was finished the minister went his way, and M. de Montaigne caught him up, and they held a long discourse together after he had taken M. de Montaigne to his house, which was seemly and well appointed. His name was Johannes Tillianus, a native of Augsburg. M. de Montaigne asked concerning a new Confession, lately formulated by the Lutherans to which all the doctors and princes who supported it have put their names; this however, is not written in Latin. When they were leaving the church a company with violins and tambourines came to meet the newly-married pair and escorted them home. On being asked if they permitted dancing, the minister exclaimed, “And why not!” and again to the question: Why had they let Jesus Christ be represented in the windows of the church, and upon the organs newly built? and why had they set up divers images? he replied that they did not condemn the use of images as warnings and examples, but only as objects of worship. Again, when he was asked why they had removed from the churches the ancient images, he answered that it was not they who had done this, but their worthy disciples the Zwinglians, who had occupied the churches in the first instance, and, being stirred up by a spiteful humour, had done this outrage and divers others to boot. The same explanation was given to M. de Montaigne by other members of this confession during his travels, the doctor at Isne to wit, who, when he was asked whether he hated the figure and effigy of the Cross, cried out straightway: “How can I be such an atheist as to hate this figure so full of joy and glory to all Christians! Opinions like these are of the devil.” And as they sat at ease at table all declared the same: that they would rather hear a hundred masses than take part in the Calvinist supper. At this place they served us white hares at table. The town is on the river Isler,63 and, after taking our dinner there on the Thursday aforesaid, we travelled four leagues over a rocky, sterile road to Frienten,64 a small village, Catholic like all the rest of this country, which is under the Archduke of Austria.

When treating of Linde, I forgot to say that at the entrance of the town there is a large wall bearing signs of great antiquity, and having naught written thereon that I see. I heard that its name in German signified “the old wall.”

On this Friday morning, though our lodging was a very mean one, we did not fail to find plentiful provision. It is the habit of these people to warm neither their sheets before going to bed nor their clothes before getting up, and they take it ill if any one should have a fire lighted in the kitchen for this service, or even make use of such fire as may be burning. This was one of the chief causes of wrangling we encountered in the houses where we lodged; indeed, even in the depths of the mountains and forests, where ten thousand feet of pinewood could be bought for less than fifty sous, they were just as ill disposed to let us make a fire as elsewhere. On the Friday morning we departed, and followed the more easy road to the left, instead of taking the mountain path which leads direct to Trent, M. de Montaigne being minded to make a détour of several days in order to visit certain fine cities of Germany; and annoyed that, when at Vanguen, he had altered his plan which he had first made of going direct to Germany, and had taken another route. On our road we saw, as in divers other places, certain water-mills which have water brought to them simply by wooden troughs, which take in the water at the foot of some mountain, and then, being raised and propped high above the ground, discharge the stream down a very steep incline from the end of the last trough. After going a league on the road, we stopped to dine at Frissen.65

This is a small Catholic town, belonging to the bishop of Augsburg. We found there numerous members of the train of the Archduke of Austria, who was paying a visit to the Duke of Bavaria in a castle hard by.66 It was decided to leave there on the banks of the Lech our heavy baggage, and that I and certain others should take them on to Augsburg on a raft, as they term the trunks of trees bound together, which they break up when in harbour. There is an abbey in which they showed to Messieurs a chalice and a stole which they hold to be relics. These belonged to a saint named Magnus,67 who was, as they declare, the son of a king of Scotland, and a disciple of Columbanus. Pepin founded this monastery for the benefit of this Magnus, whom he made the first abbot. He likewise caused to be written there on the roof of the nave this inscription, and below the same notes of music to which it might be sung: “Comperta virtute beati Magni fama, Pipinus Princeps locum quem Sanctus incoluit regia largitate donavit.” Charlemagne subsequently enriched the place still further, as an inscription in the monastery records. After dinner we all met at Chonguen68 at bedtime, after a journey of four leagues.

Chonguen is a small town under the Duke of Bavaria, and consequently entirely Catholic; for this prince, beyond any other in Germany, has kept his jurisdiction free from all touch of religious innovation, and is stiffly set in his views. There is excellent lodging at the “Star,” where we found a new fashion at table. On a square board they arrange the salt-cellars from one corner to another, the candlesticks being set between the two other corners, thus forming a Saint Andrew’s cross. They never serve eggs, or at least only when boiled hard and cut in quarters in the salads, which are of the best, the vegetables being quite fresh. The wine is drunk new, as a rule, immediately after it is made. They thresh out the corn in the barns as they may want it, using in this work the heavy end of a flail. On the Saturday we journeyed four leagues and dined at Lanspergs,69 a small town belonging also to the Duke of Bavaria aforesaid, and situated on the banks of the Lech, the town, the suburbs, and the castle alike exhibiting a remarkably fine aspect. We arrived there on a market day, when the place was crowded with people, and remarked in the middle of a very large square a fountain which sent up water through a hundred pipes to the height of a pike shaft, and scattered the jets in elaborate fashion, according to the manipulation of the pipes. There is a very fine church in the town and another in the suburb, both high up on the hill, which is very steep, and the castle is similarly situated. M. de Montaigne went thither to visit the Jesuit college, finely housed in quite a new building, to which they are about to add a church. M. de Montaigne spent as much time as he had to spare in conversing with the Jesuits.

The Count of Helfenstein70 was in command at the castle. Here, if any one should favour another religion than the Roman, he would be wise to keep silent thereanent. On the gate between the town and the suburb there is a long inscription in Latin, written in the year 1552, which declares that the Senatus populusque of the town built this monument to the memory of the brothers William and Louis, dukes utriusque Boiariæ. Here there are many conceits after the following fashion: “Horridum militem esse decet, nec auro cœlatum, sed animo et ferro fretum;” and at the top thereof, “Cavea stultorum mundus.” And in another place, very conspicuous, are certain words taken from some Latin historian,71 concerning the battle which the Consul Marcellus lost to a king of this nation: “Carolami Boiorumque Regis cum Marcello Cos. pugna quâ eum vicit,” &c. Besides these there are divers appropriate mottoes in Latin over the doors of private houses. These people constantly refurbish their towns and churches, which in consequence have a most prosperous look; and, as it happened most seasonably for the amenity of our visit, everything had been newly set in order in this place three or four years before; for they always put the date upon their work. The clock of this town, like those in many other towns in this country, sounds all the quarters; and they say there is one in Nuremburg which sounds the minutes. We left the town after dinner, and after going four leagues over a lengthy plain of pasture, very level, like the plain of La Beausse, we arrived at Augsburg.

This is reckoned the fairest town of Germany, as Strasburg is the strongest. The first sight we got of their household arrangements was a strange one, but it assuredly bore witness to their cleanliness. This was when we found the steps of the staircase of our lodging covered with pieces of linen cloth, upon which we were required to walk in order that we might not soil the steps aforesaid, seeing that they had just washed and polished them, as is their wont to do every Saturday. We saw no trace of cobweb or of mud in our lodging: in certain of the rooms were curtains which any one may at will draw over the windows. It is rare to find tables in the chambers, save those which are attached to the foot of the bed, and these are made to go with hinges so they can be raised or lowered at pleasure. The footboards of the beds are elevated two or three feet above the frame, and are often as high as the bolsters, beautifully carven in pinewood, but the pine they use is inferior to our walnut. They make use of pewter plates polished bright, but they put inside these other plates of wood, and on the walls, beside the beds, they often hang up linen cloths and curtains in order that the walls may not be sullied by the spitting of the guests. The Germans set great store on coats-of-arms, and in every apartment may be found a great number of these which the gentlefolk of the country on their travels have left behind; the glass in the windows, moreover, is often garnished with the same. The routine of table service varies greatly. Here they gave us first crayfish of a wonderful size, but in other places this dish has always come last. In many of the large inns they bring everything in covered dishes. The reason why their window glass is so brilliant is that they have no set window-frames like ours, but casements which open at will and which they clean often.

On the following morning, which was Sunday, M. de Montaigne went to see several churches. He went to some which were Catholic, and everywhere he found the service very well done. Six of the churches are Lutheran and are served by sixteen ministers, two of these churches being taken from the Catholics, and four built by the Lutherans themselves. One of the last-named he visited in the morning, and found it like the great hall of a college, with neither images nor organs nor cross, but with the walls covered with inscriptions in German taken from the Bible. There were two chairs, one for the minister or for whomsoever might preach, and another one placed lower for the leader in singing the psalms. At every verse the people wait for the leader aforesaid, who gives the note. They sing in haphazard fashion, each one according to his humour, and with head bare or covered. After the singing, a minister who had been in the assembly went to the altar, and read from a book several prayers, at certain of which the people stood up and clasped their hands, and made deep reverence at the name of Jesus Christ. After he had finished his reading to the assembly, he put before him on the altar a napkin, a basin, and a saucer, in which was water. A woman, followed by a dozen others, brought to him a child, swaddled and with face bare, whereupon the minister thrice took the water in the saucer and sprinkled it on the child’s face and said certain words. This being finished, two men approached and each one of them placed two fingers of the right hand upon the child; the minister then addressed them, and this was all.

M. de Montaigne held a conversation with this minister after he left the church, and was informed that the ministers receive no stipend from the church, their salary being paid by the Senate as a public charge; that there was a greater crowd of worshippers in this one church than in two or three of the Catholic churches together. We did not see a single handsome woman. The women wear a vast variety of attire, and in the case of the men it is a hard matter to say who is noble and who is not, forasmuch as all sorts of men wear bonnets of velvet and carry swords by the side. We had our lodging at the sign of the “Linde,” called after a tree of the country, which stands adjoining the palace of the Foulcres.72 A certain member of this family, who died some years ago, left a sum of two millions of French crowns to his heirs, and these heirs made over to the Jesuits of the city thirty thousand florins for prayers for the soul of the deceased, with which sum the Jesuits are very handsomely equipped and provided. This house of the Foulcres is roofed with copper: as a rule the houses are much finer, larger, and higher than in any French town, and the streets much wider. M. de Montaigne estimated the population of Augsburg to equal that of Orléans.

After dinner we went to see a show of fencing in the public hall, where there was a vast crowd. We had to pay for entrance as to a puppet show, and for our seats in addition. They showed us some play with the poignard, with the two-handed sword, with the quarter-staff, and with the hanger. Afterwards we saw them shooting for a prize with bow and crossbow, on a ground far finer than that of Schaffhausen. Beyond this place, at the city gate by which we had entered, we observed a copious stream of water which was brought into the city from outside and led under the bridge used for traffic. It is conveyed by a wooden aqueduct built below the bridge aforesaid, and is thus carried over the stream which forms the city ditch. This current in its course turns a number of water-wheels attached to pumps which, by means of two leaden pipes, raise the water of a spring, which rises in a hollow, to the top of a tower some fifty feet in height. On the top of this tower the water is poured into a great stone cistern, and from this cistern it runs down through divers pipes and is distributed all over the city, which in consequence is abundantly supplied with fountains. Private persons, if it be their wish, may have a right of water for their own use on payment of an annual rent of ten florins to the city, or for two hundred florins paid down. The city was enriched by this magnificent work about forty years ago.73

Marriages of Catholics with Lutherans are common, and the one most keenly set on marriage commonly conforms to the faith of the other. There are thousands of marriages of this sort. Our host was a Catholic and his wife a Lutheran. Here they clean the glasses with a hairbrush fixed to the end of a stick. According to report, excellent houses may be bought for forty or fifty crowns apiece. The city guard did M. de Montaigne and M. d’Estissac the honour of presenting to them fourteen large vessels of wine for supper. This was brought by seven sergeants clad in uniform and an officer of worship, whom our gentlemen invited to sup, as is the custom in such cases. Something, moreover, is always given to the bearers of the offering, and the sergeants aforesaid got a crown. The officer who remained to supper told M. de Montaigne that the city maintained three officials whose duty it was to greet strangers of quality who came to visit the place, and that on this account they always took care to ascertain the quality of each visitor, so that he might receive the honours due to him. Moreover, they offered more wine to some than to others. If a duke should arrive in the city, one of the burgomasters would attend to bid him welcome. Us they took for barons and knights. For certain reasons M. de Montaigne was inclined to assume this counterfeit dignity, and to keep silence as to our real quality. He spent the whole of the day walking through the town by himself, and was convinced that he was treated with greater consideration on account of the aforesaid subterfuge. A like honour indeed was paid by all the German towns.

As he was passing through the church of Notre Dame on a very cold day (for, after having enjoyed the finest weather possible up to our departure from Kempten, we had of late been sharply pricked by the cold), he carried, without thinking thereof, his handkerchief at his nose, deeming that, being alone and plainly dressed, no one would remark him; but after he had become more familiar with certain of the citizens, they told him that the church officers had found his carriage on the morning aforesaid very strange. Thus he committed the fault he was ever most studious to avoid, to wit, that he had made himself conspicuous by a trick alien to the taste of those who remarked the same; for, as far as in him lay, he always conformed and brought himself in line with the manners of whatever place he might frequent; indeed, while he was in Augsburg he always wore a fur cap when he went about the town. Augsburg, they say, is free from the mice and large rats with which the rest of Germany is infested, and they tell many wonderful stories thereanent, attributing this immunity to one of their bishops who is buried there, and affirming that the earth from his tomb, which is sold in little portions the bigness of a nut, will drive away the vermin aforesaid from any place to which it may be taken.74

On the Monday we repaired to the church of Notre Dame to witness the marriage of a rich young lady of the city—albeit ill-favoured—to a certain Venetian, a factor in the house of the Foulcres. Amongst the guests there was not one good-looking woman. This family is a very numerous one; they are all very rich, and hold the highest position in this city. We visited two apartments in their house, one high, of grand measurement, and paved with marble, and the other low-ceilinged, enriched with medals, both ancient and modern, and having a small room at the end. These are the most sumptuous rooms I ever beheld. At the gathering after the wedding we saw some dancing, and they danced nothing but Alemandes. They constantly stop dancing and lead the ladies back to their seats, which are ranged in double rows against the walls and covered with red cloth; but the gentlemen do not sit there with them. After a slight pause they take their dames out again, kissing their hands, which salutation the ladies accept without returning it; and then, having placed the arm under the ladies’ armpits, they embrace them, and the ladies put their right hands on the gentlemen’s shoulders. They dance and chat together with heads bare and in sober attire.

We saw more houses belonging to the Foulcres in other parts of the city, which is beholden to this family for the great outlay of money they spend in its adornment. These houses are summer residences. In one we saw a clock which was worked by the flow of water which serves as a counterpoise. At the same place were two large covered fish-ponds full of fish, and twenty paces square. Round the brink of each of the ponds are divers small pipes, some straight and others curving upwards, and through each of these water is poured in very pleasant wise into the pond, some delivering it in a direct jet, and others spouting it upwards to the height of a pikestaff. Between the ponds is a space some ten paces in width floored with planks, and between these planks are hidden certain little taps of brass. Thus, at any time when ladies may go to divert themselves by seeing the fish play about the pond, it needs only the letting go a certain spring to make every tap aforesaid send a jet of water straight upward to the height of a man, and drench the petticoats and cool the thighs of the ladies. In another place there is a fountain pipe, contrived to play a merry jest upon the spectator, for, while you look at the same, any one who is so minded may turn on the water in tiny hidden jets, which will throw in your face a hundred little threads of water; and there is set up a Latin inscription: Quæsisti nugas, nugis gaudeto repertis. Near thereto is a large cage, twenty paces square and twelve or fifteen feet high, which is enclosed all round with copper wire, well knit and fastened, and inside are ten or twelve fir trees and a fountain. This cage is full of birds, amongst others Polish pigeons, which they call D’inde, and which I have seen elsewhere: these are large birds beaked like partridges.

We saw also the handiwork of a certain gardener who, foreseeing cold, inclement weather, had transported into a little shed a great quantity of artichokes, cabbages, lettuces, spinach, chicory, and other vegetables, which he had gathered as if to consume them at once, but in lieu thereof had set them by the root in soil, and hoped to keep them good and fresh three or four months; and indeed he had there a hundred artichokes, not the least withered, though they had been plucked more than six weeks. We saw also an instrument of lead bent and open at either end. If any one should fill this with water and, keeping both ends upwards, reverse it dexterously, so that one end shall suck up from a vessel filled with water, while the other shall discharge outside, they say that if the stream be once set going, the water will continuously rush into the tube and discharge itself at the other end, so as not to produce a vacuum in the tube.

The escutcheon of the Foulcres is a shield divided in the midst; on the left a fleur de lys of azure on a golden ground; on the right a fleur de lys of gold on an azure ground. These arms the Emperor Charles V. granted when he ennobled them. We went to see certain men who were conveying from Venice two ostriches to the Duke of Saxony. The male was the blacker of the two, and had a red neck; the female was of a grey colour and laid a great number of eggs. The men said that these beasts felt less fatigue than they themselves, and constantly contrived to escape, but they kept them in hand by means of a band which girt them round the back above the thighs, and another one above the shoulders. These bands held them in all round, and the guards had caused to be fastened thereto long reins, by means of which they could stop them, and make them turn as they desired. On the Tuesday the chief men of the city showed us with great courtesy a postern gate, through which all who wish may enter the city at any hour of the night, whether on horse or on foot, by simply giving his name, and the name of the citizen to whom he is going, or the name of the hostelry he purposes to visit. Two trusty men, paid by the city, keep guard, and horsemen on entering pay two batzen, and footmen one. The gate opposite to this one in the outer wall is covered with iron, and beside it, attached to a chain, is a handle, also of iron, which, being pulled, moves the chain and strikes a bell in the bedchamber of one of the porters in a high tower. The porter, though undressed and in bed, by means of machinery which he moves backwards and forwards can open the door aforesaid, albeit it is a hundred paces distant from his chamber. The incomer will find himself on a bridge, some forty paces long, covered throughout, which stretches over the city ditch. Along this bridge is a wooden casing, within which works the machinery devised to open the outside door, which is quickly closed behind the incomer. The bridge being passed, the next place is a small enclosure; and here a stranger will have to speak to the porter aforesaid and give his name and address. Then the porter with a bell gives notice to his mate, who is lodged on a lower floor of the gate tower, which contains many apartments; and this porter, by working a spring in a gallery adjacent to his chamber, opens, in the first instance, a little iron gate; and next, by means of a great wheel, raises the drawbridge in such quiet fashion that no one can detect any movement (for everything works by means of weights on the walls and on the doors), and straightway everything closes again with a great clatter. Beyond the bridge a great door, very thick, opens by itself: this is of wood and strengthened by large sheets of iron. The stranger now finds himself in a hall, and in all his passage he meets no one with whom he may speak. When he is shut up in this apartment another door, similar to the aforesaid, is opened for him, and he can enter a second hall, lighted, where he will find a brazen vessel, suspended by a chain, into which he casts the coin due for his entry, and this the porter hoists up to his chamber. If he is not content therewith he lets the stranger bide below till morning; but, if he be satisfied, he opens by similar means another great door, which closes immediately it has been passed by the stranger, who then finds himself in the town.75 This is one of the most carefully wrought devices to be found anywhere, and the Queen of England sent thither a special ambassador to inquire of the city authority how it was worked, but the explanation of the secret was refused to her. Underneath this gateway there is a vast vault, in which can be stabled under cover five hundred horses, to be maintained and to be used in war without the knowledge or consent of the town council.

After our visit to this place we went to see the church of Sainte Croix, which is very beautiful. There at certain seasons they have a great ceremony on account of a miracle which came to pass some hundred years ago. It chanced that a woman instead of swallowing the body of our Lord, took the same from her mouth and put it, wrapped in wax, into a box. She confessed what she had done, and afterwards found what she had placed in the box had changed into real flesh. They bring forward divers testimonies to confirm the above statement, written both in Latin and German, in divers parts of the church. They exhibit this bit of wax enclosed in a crystal case and a little scrap of something red like flesh. This church, like the house of the Foulcres, is covered with copper, a thing not uncommon in these parts. The Lutheran church is built adjoining thereto, this religion being housed and established here, as in certain other places, almost in the cloisters of the Catholic churches. In the churchyard of this church they have set up the image of our Lady holding Christ in her arms, together with images of saints and infants, and this inscription: Sinite parvulos venire ad me, &c. In our lodging there was a machine made of iron fixed so as to reach down to the bottom of a very deep well. Then up above a servant, by working a handle which moves the machinery up and down within a space of three or four feet, produces a pressure on the water at the bottom of the well, and propels it by the pistons of the machine aforesaid, so that it is forced to ascend by a leaden pipe, which takes it to the kitchens and whithersoever else it may be needed. They have a paid cleaner who puts in order immediately any befoulment of the walls.

At table we were offered pasties, large and small, made in earthen dishes, of form and colour exactly resembling that of a pasty crust; and it is very rare to sit down to a meal without sweetmeats or boxes of confectionery. The bread is the best to be had anywhere, and the wines good. In this country the wine is, for the most part, white, and what we drank was not grown near Augsburg, but five or six days’ journey distant. For every hundred florins which an innkeeper lays out in wine, the city government takes sixty as a tax, and half this amount is demanded of a private person who only buys for his own consumption. In many places they still retain the custom of putting perfumes in the bed-chambers and in the stoves.

Some time ago the town was entirely Zwinglian. But since the Catholics have been recalled,76 those of the reformed faith take the second place, and at this time, though they are greatly superior in number to the Catholics, they are ousted from all authority. M. de Montaigne also paid a visit to the Jesuits, whom he found to be men of much learning. On the morning of Wednesday, October 19, we took our breakfast, and M. de Montaigne was much grieved to depart and leave unvisited the Danube and the town of Ulm which it passes, seeing that he was only one day’s journey distant. He also desired to go to a bath some half-day’s journey farther on called Sourbronne,77 which is in a level country, and has a spring of cold water, good both for drinking and for the bath when duly warmed. It has, moreover, a pleasant relish on the palate which makes it agreeable to drink, and it is excellent for distempers of the head and stomach. The bath is in great repute, and visitors can be most sumptuously housed there in fine apartments, the same as at Baden, according to what we were told thereanent; but the season of winter was now approaching, and this place lay in a direction opposite to that in which we were bound, wherefore it would have been necessary for us to retrace our steps to Augsburg, and M. de Montaigne was greatly averse from traversing the same road twice. I left a shield with the arms of M. de Montaigne in front of the door of the room he had occupied, marvellously well painted, at a cost of two crowns to the painter and twenty sous to the joiner. The town is on the banks of the river Lech, Lycus. We traversed a very fine country, fertile with cornfields, and after travelling five leagues, we arrived at Broug78 in time for bed.

This is a large Catholic village, finely situated, and belonging to the duchy of Bavaria. We started on the morrow, Thursday, October 20, and after having traversed a vast plain of corn-land (for in this country no vines are planted), and then one of pasturage stretching as far as the eye could see, we arrived, after four leagues’ journey, in time for dinner at Munich, a large city about the size of Bourdeaux, the capital of the duchy of Bavaria, and the principal residence of the dukes, situated on the river Yser, Ister.