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. [Illustration: CONSTANCE _From Civitates Orbis Terrarum_ _To face p. 96_, vol. i. ] III THE EMPIRE