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.
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.