The weather at this season was very cold, with an icy north wind. On the Monday and several days following I suffered from indigestion, and for this reason I took my meals apart, so I might eat less. From the effects of a purge I felt an improvement in my general health, but my head still gave me the same discomfort. On the very day of my arrival at Rome I received a letter from the Jurats of Bordeaux, who wrote to me most courteously concerning my election as the Mayor of their city, and begged me to repair thither to take up the office. On Sunday, October the 8th, I went to the baths of Diocletian on Monte Cavallo to see the performances of an Italian who, during a long captivity amongst the Turks, had learnt some wonderful feats of horsemanship: for instance, while the horse was going at full speed, he would stand upright on the saddle and hurl a dart with all his force, and at the same moment drop down into his seat. Again, in full course he would get off the horse, grasping the saddle-bow with one hand, touching the ground with his right foot and keeping the left in the stirrup. He mounted and dismounted several times in this fashion, and turned somersaults on the saddle while the horse was going full speed, and shot arrows from a Turkish bow in front and in the rear with the utmost rapidity. He next rode the horse standing upright on his feet, and bending his body downwards so that his head and shoulders rested on the horse’s neck, and then he took a club in hand and, having thrown it off into the air, caught it again during his course. Standing on the saddle he took a lance, with which he struck a glove and transfixed it as if he were running at the ring. On foot he caused a staff to revolve in a circle round his neck, having first set the same going with his hand.[108] [Illustration: THE BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN _From Piranesi’s Views of Rome_ _To face p. 168_, vol. iii. ]