This archduke is a mighty builder and planner of all such useful devices. There we saw ten or twelve field-pieces, each carrying a ball as big as a goose’s egg, and mounted on wheels enriched and gilded all over; the very pieces themselves being gilded. They are made of nothing stronger than wood, but the muzzles are covered with iron plating, and inside the guns this plating is of double thickness. A man can carry one on his back. These guns are not fired so often as those cast in iron, but they will carry a ball almost as far. At the archduke’s country house we saw two oxen of an extraordinary size, grey with white heads, which M. de Ferrara had given him; for the aforesaid Duke of Ferrara had married one of his sisters, the Duke of Florence another, and the Duke of Mantua a third. At Hala three others formerly resided who were called “the Three Queens,”[93] for to the daughters of the Emperor they give this style, as they call the daughters of other rulers countesses and duchesses, according to their estates; also to the Emperor’s daughters is given a surname from the kingdoms ruled by the Emperor. Two of these three are dead, and the third, who was still residing there, M. de Montaigne was unable to see. She lives in religious seclusion, and has called in and established the Jesuits at Hala. Report goes that the archduke cannot leave his possessions to his children, but that these must revert to the successor to the Empire. They could not, however, give the reason for this arrangement; and, as far as this remark applies to the wife, it seems to carry no meaning, forasmuch as, though she was not of suitable rank, still he married her, and all men hold her to have been his lawful wife, and her children legitimate. However, he has amassed much money in order to bequeath them something.