We arrived at Constance at four o’clock. This town, which is about the size of Châlons, belongs to the Archduke of Austria, and holds to the Catholic religion, though up to thirty years ago it was in the hands of the Lutherans, whom the Emperor Charles V. drove out by force. The churches still show signs of images, and the bishop is a gentleman of the country, who lives at Rome, and as a cardinal draws from this benefice an income of forty thousand crowns. There are canonries, too, of the church of Notre Dame, which are worth fifteen hundred crowns, and are held by men of gentle family. We saw one of these on horseback coming in from the country, attired gallantly like a gentleman-of-arms; and report says that in the town are many Lutherans. We ascended the clock tower, which is very high, and there found a man as fixed sentinel, who is shut therein and not suffered to quit his post, whatever may call him thence. They were constructing beside the Rhine a large covered building, fifty feet long and forty wide, or thereabouts, and fixing therein twelve or fifteen great wheels, by means of which they propose to raise continuously a large quantity of water up to a wooden tower, one storey higher, where will be an equal number of iron wheels (the lower ones are of wood), which will raise the water from the first floor to the one above. The water, having been lifted to the height of some fifty feet, will discharge itself by a large artificial channel and flow down into the town, and set several mills to work. The artisan who has the direction of this building had for his labour alone five thousand seven hundred florins, and wine to boot. In the deep water they were fixing a strong wooden erection all around to break the current; so that, when the force of the water should be moderated, they might be able to draw it upwards more easily. There was also an arrangement of machinery by which the whole system of wheelwork can be raised or lowered according to the level of the water. At this point the stream is not called the Rhine, for by the upper part of the city it spreads out into a lake full four German leagues in width and five or six in length. There is a fine terrace overlooking this lake where merchandise is stored, and about fifty paces from the shore stands a finely-built lodge, where a sentinel is always on duty. A chain is here prepared, by which the way of access to the bridge may be closed, and high palisades are set, which enclose on both sides that part of the lake in which boats lie and take in cargo. Near the church of Notre Dame there is a conduit by which water from the Rhine higher up finds its way to the suburbs of the town.