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.
[Illustration: BASEL
_From Civitates Orbis Terrarum_
_To face p. 62_, vol. i.
]
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.
[Illustration: BADEN EN ARGOW
_To face p. 76_, vol. i.
]
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
from the water-courses for each bath. The lodgment is magnificent. In
the house where we stayed three hundred mouths had to be fed every day;
and, while we were there, beds were made for a hundred-and-seventy
sojourners. It possessed seventeen stoves and eleven kitchens, and
in the house adjoining were fifty furnished chambers, the walls of
all the rooms being hung with the coats-of-arms of the gentry who
had lodged therein. The town, perched high on the crest of a hill,
is small and very fair, like almost all the towns of this country.
Moreover, they build their streets wider and more open than ours, and
their market-places more ample, and there is a wealth of richly-glazed
windows everywhere. They paint almost all the houses outside with
various devices, and the towns consequently are very pleasant to look
upon. Again, there is scarcely a town without running water in the
streets, and at every cross-street will be found a handsome fountain,
built either in stone or in wood, and on this account their towns are
much fairer to view than those of France. The water of the baths gives
out an odour of sulphur like those of Aigues-Caudes[40] and certain
others. The heat is tempered as at Barbotan[41] or Aigues-Caudes, and
for this reason the baths are very soft and pleasant.
Ladies who are fain to take their bath with daintiness and decency can
repair to Baden with confidence, for they will be alone in the bath,
which is like an elegant cabinet, light, with glazed windows, painted
panelling, and clean flooring. Everywhere are chairs and small tables
for reading or gaming while in the bath. The bather may empty and fill
the bath as often as he likes, and will find a chamber adjoining.
There are fine walks along the river, besides artificial ones under
galleries. These baths are placed in a valley commanded by the slopes
of high mountains, which nevertheless are fertile and well cultivated.
The water when drunk tastes rather flat and soft, like water heated
up, and there is a smell of sulphur about it, and a certain prickling
flavour of salt. Amongst the people of the place it is chiefly used
in the bath, in which they subject themselves also to cupping and
bleeding, so that I have at times seen the water in the two public
baths the colour of blood. Those who drink it by habit take a glass or
two at the most. The guests as a rule stay six or seven weeks, and
some or other frequent the baths all through the summer. No country
sends so many visitors as Germany, from whence come great crowds.