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. ]