Tacitus,[42] who searched to the utmost to find the chief spring, but
could get no knowledge thereof; but apparently the springs rise from
a great depth below the level even of the river. The water is less
clear than that of the other springs we have seen, and when drawn
from the spring it shows certain minute fibres. Moreover, it contains
no sparkling bubbles like other sulphurous waters when the glass is
filled; like those of Spa, for instance, of which M. de Maldonat told
us. M. de Montaigne took some of it on the Monday morning after we
arrived, seven small glasses, and on the next day five large glasses,
amounting to ten of the aforesaid. On this same day, Tuesday, at nine
in the morning, while the others were at table, he took a bath and fell
into a heavy sweat in bed afterwards, having stayed in the bath only
half-an-hour. The people of the country, who stay all day in the bath
playing and drinking, stand only up to the middle in water, but M. de
Montaigne lay full length and was covered to the neck.[43]
On this day departed from the baths a certain Swiss gentleman, an
excellent servant of our State, who all the day before had held
converse with M. de Montaigne concerning Swiss affairs, and had shown
him a letter which the French ambassador, son of our President du
Harlay, had written from Souleure, where he was staying, committing
to him the king’s interests while he himself should be absent. The
ambassador had been summoned by the queen to meet her at Lyons, in
order to devise some plan of checkmating the schemes of Spain and
the late Duke of Savoy. The duke shortly before his death had allied
himself with certain of the cantons, an alliance which our king had
resisted, alleging that the cantons, being already pledged to him,
could incur no fresh obligations without his leave. Some of the
cantons, when this was pointed out to them by the Swiss gentleman
aforesaid, drew back from the alliance. Indeed, all through this
country they showed great respect and friendship to our king’s name
and the utmost civility to ourselves. The Swiss gentleman had a train
of four horses. His son, who is also in the king’s service, on one, a
valet on another, his daughter, a tall, handsome girl, on another, with
a horsecloth and footboard in French fashion, a trunk on the crupper,
and a bonnet box on the saddle-bow, without any waiting-maid, though
they were two long days’ journey from their abode, which is in a town
where the gentleman aforesaid was the governor. He himself rode the
remaining horse.
The common dress of the women does not seem to me so becoming as that
usually worn in France, nor the headgear either. This is a bonnet,
_à la cognard_, turned up before and behind, and having in front a
slight peak enriched with stripes of silk and fur trimmings. The hair
hangs down behind in a braid. If you should jestingly take off this
bonnet--for it is lightly attached as with us--they will show no
offence, and you will see the head quite uncovered. The younger women
wear simple garlands in lieu of a bonnet. There is little difference of
attire to make the distinction of classes, and the habit is to salute
by kissing the hand, and by offering to touch the lady’s. Otherwise,
if in passing you give a greeting and bow they will generally make no
sign of acknowledgment, according to ancient usage, but some will bow
the head slightly by way of returning the salutation. They are for the
most part well-favoured women, tall, and fair.
As a nation they have an excellent disposition, even towards those
who [do not][44] agree with them. M. de Montaigne, in order to make
full trial of diverse manners and customs of the countries he visited,
always conformed to local usage, however greatly such a usage may have
irked him. Nevertheless, in Switzerland he said that he suffered no
inconvenience except that he had at table, by way of napkin, only a
piece of linen half a foot long: moreover, the Swiss themselves only
unfold this napkin at dinner when many sauces and divers sorts of soup
are served; but, on the other hand, they always provide as many wooden
spoons with silver handles as there are guests. And a Swiss will always
be provided with a knife with which he will eat everything, and never
put his fingers in his plate.
In almost all the towns the proper arms of the place are displayed,
and above them those of the Emperor and of the house of Austria, but
the greater part of the towns have been detached from the archduke
aforesaid by ill policy. They say that all members of the Austrian
house, except the Catholic king, have been brought to great poverty,
even the Emperor,[45] who is held very lightly in Germany. On the
Wednesday the host bought a large quantity of fish, and being asked by
M. de Montaigne the reason why, he replied that the greater part of the
people of Baden ate fish on Wednesdays on religious grounds, a remark
which confirmed what he had before heard on this subject: to wit, that
those who have remained Catholics are confirmed in their faith by the
fact that they have to reckon on an opposition. The host added, when
division and religious strife shows itself in a particular town, and
infects the governing body, the bond of good feeling is loosened, and
the effect of this admixture is felt in individual families, as has
been manifested in Augsburg and in the imperial cities. But when a town
has one central government--and every Swiss town has its separate laws
and administration, is dependent on its neighbours for the preservation
of order, and keeps up alliance and union only for purposes affecting
the whole community--those towns which possess special civic rights,
with a separate civil government complete in all parts, find therein
a support for their strengthening and upholding. Towns in this case
undoubtedly become stronger, closing their ranks and recruiting their
forces through the contagious shock of conflicts near at hand.
Their custom of warming the houses by stoves pleased us greatly, and
none of our company complained thereof; for, after you have taken in
a breath or two of the air which indeed may seem strange on entering
a room, you are sensible only of a soft and regular heat. M. de
Montaigne, who slept in a room with a stove, was loud in its praises,
saying that all night he felt a pleasant moderate warmth. In warming
yourself you burn neither your face nor your boots, and are free from
the smoke of a French fireplace. At home we put on our warm furred
dressing-gowns when we enter our apartments, but here people appear in
doublet and bareheaded in the warm rooms, and put on thick garments
before going into the air. On the Thursday M. de Montaigne drank the
same quantity of water, which acted well and rid him of a small amount
of gravel. Still, he found these waters more powerful than any others
which he had ever tried--whether from the strength of the water itself
or from the present habit of his body--and accordingly he drank them
more sparingly.
On this same Thursday he held discourse with a minister from Zürich,
a native of that city, and heard from him that the religion there
was formerly Zwinglian, but that now it had come nearer to Calvinism,
a somewhat milder creed. Being questioned as to predestination, he
replied that they kept the mean between Geneva and Augsburg, but that
their people were free to debate this question. For his own part he
inclined rather to the side of Zwingli, praising him highly as one who
came the nearest to primitive Christianity.
On Friday, October 7th, at seven in the morning, after breakfast, we
quitted Baden; and, before we set out, M. de Montaigne drank the same
quantity of the water as he had taken on five previous occasions. With
regard to the operation of the same, concerning which he was more
sanguine than he was in the case of any other bath he had visited (both
as to the bathing and the drinking), he was free in his praise of these
baths beyond all the rest, not only because the place itself, and the
baths and the private apartments, are comfortably and conveniently
managed, but also because, in all apartments, visitors are always
able to go to their own rooms without passing through the rooms of
other people. Moreover, persons of small means may find quarters to
suit them quite as easily as those who are rich. Bathrooms, kitchens,
cabinets, and chapels may be hired for a large retinue, and at the
house adjacent to our own, the Cour de la Ville--ours being the Cour
de derrière--there are public apartments belonging to the cantonal
authorities, and occupied by lodgers. This same house has several
chimneys built in French fashion, and there are stoves in all the
chief apartments. The demand for payment from strangers is a little
arbitrary, as in all countries and notably in our own. Four furnished
chambers, with nine beds in all, two of which had stoves and one bath
besides, cost us a crown a day for the masters, and for the servants
four batzen:[46] that is to say, a little more than nine sous apiece;
the horses cost six batzen, about four sous, but in addition to this
they added certain nonsensical charges which were not customary. A
guard is kept in the town and even in the bath quarter, which is
nothing but a village, and every night two sentinels make the round of
the houses, not so much to keep off the foe, as for fear of fire or
other disturbance. When the hour strikes one of them is bound to cry
out at the top of his voice to the other, and ask what is the hour,
whereupon the other in like manner tells him the hour, and adds that he
is keeping good watch. The women do their washing in the open in the
public place, bringing out their little wooden tubs to the river side
where they heat water and do their work excellently; they also clean
the earthenware far better than do our French women in the inns. Here
each chambermaid and each valet has a special charge.
One disadvantage of travel is that with ever so great diligence it
is impossible for a stranger to ascertain from the people of the
country whom he may meet--I speak of the cultivated folk as well as
the vulgar--what objects of interest may be worthy of a visit, and to
make them understand what he may ask. I write thus because, after we
had spent five days at Baden, and had inquired curiously concerning
everything there which might be worth seeing, we were told naught about
a certain object of interest which we saw by chance afterwards as we
were leaving the town. This was a stone, about the height of a man,
apparently a portion of some column, without adornment or workmanship,
placed at the angle of a house, and easily visible to any passer-by on
the high-road. There was a Latin inscription, which I was not able to
decipher fully, but it seemed to be a simple dedication to the Emperors
Nerva and Trajan. We crossed the Rhine at Kaiserstuhl, a Catholic town
and allied to the Swiss, and onward thence we traversed a fine flat
country until we came to some rapids where the river is broken up by
rocks, which they call cataracts, like those of the Nile. And below
Schaffhausen there is in the Rhine a gulf full of vast rocks where it
becomes rapid, and farther down, amongst the same rocks, it comes to a
fall of two pikes’ length, where it makes a mighty leap, foaming and
roaring marvellously. This fall stops the boats, and interrupts the
navigation of the river. We travelled four leagues at a stretch, and
came in time for supper to Schaffhausen.
This town, the capital of a Swiss canton, has the same form of religion
as Zürich. On our departure from Baden we left on our right hand
Zürich, whither M. de Montaigne had determined to journey, the town
being not more than two leagues distant. But word was brought to him
of an outbreak of plague there. At Schaffhausen he saw naught which
interested him. The citizens were erecting a citadel which promised to
be a good work; and they have, moreover, a butt for crossbow practice,
and a place for this exercise, as fine and large and shady and well
provided with seats and galleries and rooms as man could desire.
There is also a similar place for shooting with the arquebus, and
water-mills for the sawing of wood, like those we have seen elsewhere,
and others for the scutching of flax and the shelling of millet.
Likewise a tree of the sort we saw at Baden and elsewhere, but not so
large. Out of the lowest branches they contrive to make the floor of
a sort of circular gallery, twenty paces or so in diameter. They next
braid these branches together in an upward direction so as to form the
side of the gallery aforesaid, and likewise let them grow upwards as
high as possible. They afterwards clip the tree, and prevent the growth
of any branch from the trunk, so far as it passes through the gallery,
which is for the space of ten feet. They take the upper branches of the
tree, and these they lay down upon supports of willow in order to form
a roof to the little chamber. Then branches are plaited from below, and
at last joined to those which grow upward from the contrary direction:
thus the whole space is filled with green growth. Then they clip the
tree as high as the top branches, which they allow to grow naturally.
The tree brought into this form is a very beautiful object. In addition
they have made spring up at its feet a fountain of water which mounts
up as high as the floor of the gallery already mentioned.
M. de Montaigne paid a visit to the burgomasters of the town, who
afterwards, to show him courtesy, came with certain other public
officers to sup at our apartments, when they brought a present of
wine for him and M. d’Estissac, and certain speeches were made on
both sides. The chief burgomaster was a man of good family who had
been brought up as a page in the house of M. d’Orléans,[47] and had
now quite forgotten French. This canton professed to be well affected
towards our interests, and had given proof of this disposition by a
refusal to join the league of the other cantons, which the late Duke
of Savoy had tried to bring about, and of which mention has been
made already. On Saturday, October 8th, we set forth at eight in
the morning, after breakfast, from Schaffhausen, where we had found
excellent lodgment at the “Crown.” One of the most learned men of the
place had a conversation with M. de Montaigne, and told him, amongst
other matters, that in truth the people of the town were not over
well disposed to our Court, forasmuch as whenever he had listened to
discourse concerning an alliance with our king, the majority of the
people were always disposed to break it, but that by the intervention
of certain rich citizens the opposite policy had hitherto been adopted.
As we left the town we saw an engine made of iron, like certain others
we had seen elsewhere, by the help of which carts could be loaded with
heavy stones without the aid of human muscles. We passed along beside
the Rhine, leaving it on our right hand, as far as Stein, a small town,
the ally of the cantons, and of the same religion as Schaffhausen. Also
on the road we observed many stone crosses. Here we again crossed
the Rhine by a wooden bridge and, still keeping beside the river on
the left, we passed by another small town allied to the Catholic
cantons. Here the Rhine spreads out to a vast width, equal to that of
the Garonne at Blaye, and then narrows itself till the approach to
Constance, a distance of four leagues.
[Illustration: CONSTANCE
_From Civitates Orbis Terrarum_
_To face p. 96_, vol. i.
]
III
THE EMPIRE
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.
Smardorff[50] 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]