Calvin had his reasons for taking the Aosta and St. Bernard route. It had been in use for centuries, and he had no doubt learnt during his residence at Basle, what was universally known in Switzerland, that the Bernese had frequent relations with this country, that they had introduced the Gospel there, and that some of the inhabitants had adopted the principles of the Reformation. An ancient document gives us to understand that Calvin passed through Aosta both going and returning.[832] In our opinion that would be quite natural. The reports circulated in Switzerland about that city would induce him to take that road on his way to Italy, and we can easily conceive, as regards his return, that a fugitive would take a road already known to him, and where he was sure of meeting friends. But we do not press this, and are content to follow the traces Calvin left in the country on his return, and which are still to be found there. [Sidenote: CALVIN'S FARM.] At the foot of the St. Bernard, very near the city of Aosta, stood a house on some rising ground, where a grange may still be seen. In order to reach it you leave the St. Bernard road a short distance from the city and take a footpath, near which a little chapel now stands. The meadows around it, the abrupt peaks rising above it, the Alps hiding their snowy heads in the clouds, the view over Aosta and the valley—all combined to give a picturesque aspect to that house. If the traveller asks the inhabitants of the country what house that is, he will be told it is 'Calvin's Farm;' and they add that when the reformer was passing through Aosta, he was sheltered there by one of the most zealous of the reformed, Leonard de Vaudan. It was very natural that Calvin should prefer such a retired habitation to a house in the city. We do not know what Calvin did or said at Aosta. The only fact which appears proved—and a monument more than three centuries old attests it—is that his presence did not remain unknown, and caused a sensation there more or less lively. The reformer would have run great danger had he been arrested in the city of Bishop Gazzini, 'who by his vehement discourses was arming all his flock against the heretics, and who, seeing Satan incarnate in the evangelical teachers, called upon them to expel the ravenous beast.' Such are the expressions made use of by the historian of the diocese.[833] Calvin, already a fugitive, hastened to leave the neighborhood of the city. To these simple and natural facts some extraordinary circumstances have been added. For instance, certain writers have represented the Count of Challans in fierce pursuit of Calvin, and following him with drawn sword into the very heart of the mountains. This is a legend tacked on to history, as happens far too frequently.