At this place we put our trunks on one of the rafts, which are called _flottes_ in Germany, for conveyance to Verona by the river Adisse, paying therefor a florin, and on the morrow I had the charge of this transport. For supper they gave us poached eggs and a pike, together with a great plenty of flesh of all kinds. On the next morning, Monday, they set forth early, and following the valley, fairly populous but not over fertile and flanked by high, rocky mountains, they arrived after riding fifteen miles at Bourquet[120] in time for dinner. This town lies within the county of Tirol, which is very large. In this matter M. de Montaigne, when he asked whether this county included aught else than the valley we had traversed and the mountain tops we had seen, was informed that it contained divers other mountain valleys, fully as extensive and fertile, and fine towns: that the county was, as we saw it, like a robe in folds, but that, were it spread out, it would cover a very wide stretch of country. The river was all this time on the right hand, and when they resumed their journey after dinner they kept the same road as far as Chiusa, a small fort in a mountain cleft above the Adisse, which the Venetians had taken. They followed the course of the river, descending a steep slope of solid rock over which the horses could hardly keep their feet, and passing the fort aforesaid, where the Venetian government, in whose territory they had been after a mile or two on this side of Bourquet, kept twenty-five soldiers. They arrived in time for bed at Volarne after riding twelve miles. At this place they found wretched lodging, as everywhere else on the way to Verona. A young lady, the daughter of the lord of the castle who was then absent, sent M. de Montaigne a present of wine. On the morrow there were no more mountains visible on the right of the road, and to the left even the hills which lay upon the skirts of the plain were far distant. The way was for some time over a sterile plain, but when it neared the river it improved, and vines, trained upon trees, as is the fashion in these parts, came in sight. After a journey of twelve miles they arrived on All Saints’ Day before mass at Verona. END OF VOL. I. Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. Edinburgh & London FOOTNOTES: