fain to visit it than other places, because it was well known to every one, and moreover every lackey was ready to give news of Florence and Ferrara. He said that he seemed to be in like case to one who reads some delightful story or good book, and dreads to turn the last page. The pleasure of travel was to him so keen, that he hated the sight of the place where he ought rightly to stop and rest; moreover, he devised several projects of travelling exactly as the mood might seize him, supposing that he should separate from his present companions. On the Sunday morning, having a wish to see the Lake of Garda, a famous lake of these parts and rich in the finest fish,[117] he hired three horses for himself and Messieurs de Caselis and Mattecoulon at twenty batzen apiece. M. d’Estissac hired two others for himself and the Sieur du Hautoy, and with no escort--having left their own horses at this place, Rovere, for the day--they rode eight miles to Torbole, where they dined. This is a village under Tirolese jurisdiction, situated at the head of the lake, and opposite to it is a small town and a castle called Riva.[118] To this place they were taken by water, five miles, and the same distance to return; they accomplished the journey in about three hours, being rowed by five boatmen. They saw nothing at Riva save a tower which had the appearance of great age, and the governor of the place, the Seigneur Hortimato Madruccio, brother of the present cardinal bishop of Trante. In looking down the lake the farther end is not in view, for it is thirty-five miles long, while the width and all they could see of it did not exceed five miles. The head of the lake is in the county of Tirol, but all the lower part on either side is under the Signiory of Venice, a region rich in fine churches, gardens of olives, oranges, and other similar fruits. This lake is terribly rough in times of tempest, and the surrounding mountains are more bare and threatening than any of those we had hitherto passed, according to the report of Messieurs.[119] On quitting Rovere they crossed the Adisse, leaving the road to Verona to the left hand, and entered a deep valley where they passed through a long village and a small town, the road being the roughest and the view the most forbidding of any they had yet experienced, by reason of these mountains which obstructed the way. On leaving Torbole, they returned to Rovere to supper.