Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/188

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NOTES AND QUERIES. 112 s. i. MAB. 4, MML

his studies. On Sept. 15 he was attacked by the plague, but appears to have been cured by playing a violent game at tennis. The exercise threw him into a tremendous perspiration, and left him so weak that he could scarcely stand. He thereupon took to his bed, and was soon restored to health.

While he was at Orleans news came that the Spanish king had defeated the French at St. Quentin, and taken prisoner the Constable of France and many other famous men. As a result of this, all Germans not actually fighting with the French were regarded with considerable disfavour, and Khevenhuller found himself the object of suspicion and hatred. Indeed, at times he actually went in fear of his life. He decided, however, to set out for Paris, and arrived there without mishap, riding into the city on Christmas Eve. An incident on the road thither is interesting as throwing light on the con- dition of the highways in France at this time. On the way between Tours and Chartres he found a poor traveller lying by the roadside in great distress, having been robbed and wounded by brigands. The weather was bitterly cold and the horses were tired, so that Khevenhuller and his com- panions were unable to carry him along with them, but later that night they brought him in to Chartres, only to find that he had died from exposure.

At Paris Khevenhuller lodged at first at the Rose Blanche in the Faubourg St. Jaques. Later he took lodgings with a printer named Mathia David in the Rue des Amandiers, an honest, decent kind of man, but greatly suspected on account of his evangelical tendencies. He spent eight weeks in exploring the city, visited the notable buildings and churches, and several times encountered the king, Henry II. Here, too, he saw Mary, Queen of Scots, and was present at her marriage with the Dauphin. He also took part in the festivities following the taking of Calais by the French in January, visited St. Germain, and witnessed the execution of a pastrycook, who had been condemned on a charge of using human flesh as an ingredient for his bake-meats, and was broken on the wheel.

Leaving Paris, Khevenhuller proceeded to Blois, where he spent some time perfecting his French, and later travelled for more than a year in Central and Southern France. From Tours he visited the cloister of Marmutier, where it was said to be possible to hear the snoring of the Seven Sleepers who were lying there in apparently unchanged slumber after death ; but

although Khevenhuller and his companions listened attentively, they could detect nothing. He visited Angers, Mont St, Michel, and St. Malo. At Nantes he- purchased two horses to take the place of those he had hired, and proceeded to La Rochelle. At Lusignan, where he arrived on April 19, 1559, he admired the castle, and saw the spring where the fairy Melusine is said to have bathed. From Poitiers he visited Brouage, where his heart was cheered by the sight of a number of German ships homeward bound, laden with salt. From Blaye he was anxious to proceed to Bordeaux by boat, but the sea was so rough that he was obliged to abandon the project and continue by road. At Toulouse he sold his horses, hired a lodging, and settled down until the following August, when he set out with his tutor, Fabian Stosser, and three com- panions for Spain.

From Bayonne the travellers reached Fuenterrabia, the frontier town, and were shown the cannon which the Emperor Charles had captured from the Protestants in the Smalkaldic War. At Valladolid, where they found the Infante Don Carlos living a wild and reckless life, Kheven- huller and his companions had intended to make a lengthy stay ; but as they observed that preparations were being made on an extensive scale for a solemn auto-da-fe, they left the town in some haste and proceeded by way of Salamanca to Compostella, Here were the bones of St. James, the brother of our Lord, said to have been, brought thither from Palestine,* and the cathedral was a famous place of pilgrimage for Germans. It was not, however, a desirable spot for good Protestants. With his companions Khevenhuller visited the shrine, but when the holy relics were produced and the worshippers with one accord fell on their knees, he and his companions remained standing, thereby attracting universal attention. Not content with this foolish proceeding, they next flouted the authorities by declining to communicate or to come to confession when called on to do so ; and as a result of these indiscretions it is not to be wondered at that we next find our travellers in full flight, with.

sands. So famous and frequented did it become that a special and indeed a professional class oi pilgrims came into existence known as Jacobs- briider, who were continually on the roads to or from Compostella, seeking pardon for themselves and others by their wandering devotion. See 4 Cambridge Modern Hist./ ii. 105.
 * This shrine numbered its pilgrims by thou-