On the 10th of October the French ambassador sent a messenger to me after dinner to inform me that he would call in his coach to take me, if I might be willing, to see the goods of Cardinal Ursino[109] which were to be sold, the cardinal having died in Naples last summer and left all his vast wealth to an infant niece. Amongst other rare things was a counterpane of taffetas lined with swansdown. In Siena it is common to see the skins of swans entire, covered with feathers, and ready for use, at the price of a crown and a half, and as they are of the bigness of a sheepskin, it takes but few of them to make a coverlet of this sort. Then there was an ostrich’s egg carved and beautifully painted, a square jewel casket with certain gems therein, and fitted inside with mirrors in such fashion that the casket, when opened, seemed in every way much larger than it really was, while the gems were multiplied tenfold, each stone being exhibited many times by the reflection in the mirrors. Meantime it is hard to perceive that these are really mirrors. On Thursday, October the 12th, the Cardinal of Sens fetched me in his coach to visit the church of St. Giovanni e Paolo, from which he takes his title: he is, moreover, Superior of those friars who make distilled waters and perfumes at their house on Monte Celio, of whom I have already spoken. It would seem that the loftiness of this site is artificial, the whole of the space beneath being vaulted with vast corridors and apartments underground. Legend says it was formerly the Forum of Hostilius. From the garden and vineyards of the friars the prospect is very beautiful, for both old and new Rome lie open to the view. The whole place, from its precipitous height and the deep ravine at its foot, is cut off and inaccessible from almost every point. [Illustration: ROME _From Civitates Orbis Terrarum_ _To face p. 170_, vol. iii. ] This same day I handed over to a carrier a well-packed box for transit to Milan, a journey which the muleteers generally make in twenty days. The box weighed one hundred and fifty pounds, and I had to pay four baiocchi or two French sous per pound. Inside it were many things of value, notably a very fine neck-chain of the _Agnus Dei_, the finest to be had in Rome. This ornament had been made specially at the order of the ambassador of the empress, and a gentleman had taken it to the Pope so that he might bless it. XV JOURNEY HOME