such a vast number of them, some hundred and fifty, spending money like princesses over furniture and attire, with no other source of income than the traffic aforesaid. Again, divers of the nobles of the city entertained courtesans at their own charges in the sight of every one. M. de Montaigne hired for his use a gondola for day and night as well at a charge of two livres, about seventeen sous, with no extra expenditure for the boatman. Provisions are as dear here as in Paris, but it is the cheapest town in the world for living, for a train of servants is here quite useless, and every one goes about unattended. The cost of apparel is in like degree moderate; moreover, no one has occasion for a horse. On Saturday the twelfth of November we left and returned to Chaffousine, a distance of five miles, and here we and our servants and baggage got on board a boat, for which we paid two crowns. M. de Montaigne was somewhat in fear of water transit, being advised that it deranged his stomach;[18] and now, being minded to ascertain whether the motion on this river, which indeed is most steady and uniform provided that the boat be drawn by horses, would cause him inconvenience, he made trial of it and found that he suffered no ill effects therefrom. On this channel we had to pass one or two lock gates which open and shut to the passers-by. After a voyage of twenty miles by water we reached Padua in time for bed. [Illustration: VENICE _To face p. 18_, vol. ii. ]