Baden is a Catholic town, under protection of the eight[39] Swiss cantons, in which divers great gatherings of princes have taken place. We did not lodge in the town but in the suburb, which lies at the foot of the mountain on the bank of the Limmat, a stream, or rather torrent, which flows out of the Lake of Zürich. There are two or three uncovered public baths, which are frequented only by poor folk. Of the other kind there are great number within the houses, divided into small private rooms, both closed and open, which are let with the lodgings, and are as dainty and well fitted as possible, hot water being drawn from the water-courses for each bath. The lodgment is magnificent. In the house where we stayed three hundred mouths had to be fed every day; and, while we were there, beds were made for a hundred-and-seventy sojourners. It possessed seventeen stoves and eleven kitchens, and in the house adjoining were fifty furnished chambers, the walls of all the rooms being hung with the coats-of-arms of the gentry who had lodged therein. The town, perched high on the crest of a hill, is small and very fair, like almost all the towns of this country. Moreover, they build their streets wider and more open than ours, and their market-places more ample, and there is a wealth of richly-glazed windows everywhere. They paint almost all the houses outside with various devices, and the towns consequently are very pleasant to look upon. Again, there is scarcely a town without running water in the streets, and at every cross-street will be found a handsome fountain, built either in stone or in wood, and on this account their towns are much fairer to view than those of France. The water of the baths gives out an odour of sulphur like those of Aigues-Caudes[40] and certain others. The heat is tempered as at Barbotan[41] or Aigues-Caudes, and for this reason the baths are very soft and pleasant.