It would be unreasonable to expect any elegancies of style in the portion of the “Journal” written down by the secretary from dictation, and when Montaigne himself takes the pen in hand he does not greatly mend matters. All through will be found the strangest mixture of subjects, and jerkiness of style. The most incongruous themes are treated in juxtaposition. At Augsburg, at the end of a discussion with a Lutheran theologian, he throws in the remark that they had white hares for supper; and again, while speaking of mixed marriages, he records that here they clean windows with a hairbrush fixed on the end of a stick. At Rome he passes in a breath from a consideration of the relative prevalence of heresy in France and Spain to a remark that all the cargo boats on the Tiber are towed by buffaloes. In cataloguing the advantages of the city as a place of abode he tells how many of the palaces of the high nobility were at the disposition of any strange gentleman who might wish to repair thither for the night with a companion to his taste, and how in no other city in the world could be heard so many sermons and theological disputes. As soon as he had crossed the Alps on his homeward way Montaigne evidently looked upon his journey as over. The entries in the “Journal” are merely memoranda of the various stopping places, and the note of sadness in these closing sentences is very evident. All interest in the places he passed is now vanished, and the humours of the road appeal to him no more. He is going home, an old man afflicted by an ailment which has proved incurable, with only the prospect of a few years of invalid life before him, and he may well be excused for falling into a mood which throws a darker shade over the last pages of his record. THE JOURNAL OF MONTAIGNE’S TRAVELS IN ITALY BY WAY OF SWITZERLAND AND GERMANY[1] IN 1580 AND 1581 I FRANCE ... Monsieur de Montaigne sent Monsieur Mattecoulon[2] with his squire by post to pay a visit to the count[3] aforesaid, whom they found wounded, but not mortally. At Beaumont M. d’Estissac joined our party for the sake of company, our routes being the same. He had with him a gentleman, a _valet-de-chambre_, two lackeys, a muleteer and a mule, an addition equal in number to our own party, the outlay being equally divided. On Monday, September 5th, we left Beaumont after dinner, and rode in one bout to Meaux, where we arrived in time for supper. [Illustration: MEAUX _To face p. 26_, vol. i. ]