128. 1. MAR. 4, 1916.]
NOTES AND QUERIES.
183
the Inquisition at their heels. They took
refuge in a peasant's cottage outside the
town, but about midnight they were dis-
covered, their weapons were seized, and they
were taken into the town. The next day
their books were seized and examined. The
prisoners were then taken to an adjoining
town and formally handed over to the
agents of the Inquisition. Their books were
again examined, but as they were found to
contain nothing incriminating or heretical,
the prisoners were closely interrogated, and
were finally offered their freedom if they
would confess and communicate. This they
declined to do, stating that they had already
made their peace with God before setting out
on their journey, and were again committed
to prison. A few days later they were
further interrogated, and were forced to
repeat the Paternoster, the Creed, and the
Ave Maria. Khevenhuller was then asked
if he accepted the doctrine of Transub-
stantiation. Sick of his confinement and
hardships, he replied that he did ; and on the
Inquisitor suggesting that it was the fear of
the stake which had made him change his
mind, he even went so far as to protest that
he was ready to die for his new-found faith.
The prisoners were then returned to Compo-
st ella and brought before the Archbishop,
after which they were dispatched to the
headquarters of the Inquisition at Valladolid.
Here, confined in a dungeon and guarded by
the common hangman, they received the
comforting assurance that they would
certainly be burnt alive. Khevenhuller
thereupon made a solemn vow that if he
ever regained his freedom he would go on
pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre at
Jerusalem.
Five weeks later, to their intense relief, came an order from the Inquisition that they were to be set at liberty, but that certain of their books were to be burnt. A copy of ' ^Esop's Fables,' the Psalms of David, and an edition of Dictys Cretensis, ' De bello troiano,' were accordingly confis- cated, the prognostications were removed from an almanac of Nostradamus, and the travellers were permitted to depart. Kheven- huller' s companions had had enough of Spain, and set off post haste for France, but Khevenhuller and Stosser continued their journey to Lisbon. Here they took note of all that was remarkable in the town ; visited the slave market, where negroes and apes were being sold ; and saw the youthful King Sebastian, who is described as a beautiful lad with long fair hair. The sight of the ships in the harbour fired Khevenhuller with
a longing for the New World, and had funds?
permitted it he would certainly have sailed
for the Indies. As it was, he had to content
himself with visiting Toledo, where he saw
King Philip II. and the Duke of Alva as they
attended Mass. At Segovia he was amazed
at the wonderful Roman aqueduct, with its
arches spreading far away over the roofs of
the houses, and, in common with the in-
habitants, he took it to be the work of
the devil. At Guadalajara he was present
at a bullfight, and at Madrid he witnessed
the state entry of Elizabeth of France-
into the town. He then paid a visit to
the Benedictine abbey and hermitages at
Montserrat, and returned across the Pyrenees-
into France. Travelling by way of Mont-
pellier and Aries, he reached Chalon on
April 20, 1560, and paid a visit to Nostra-
damus himself, who discussed all kinds of
things with him, and no doubt supplied the
imperfection in the almanac which had been
despoiled by Holy Church. On May 31
he reached Paris. Ten weeks later he
obtained fresh funds and set out for Brussels,
Here he visited the Duke of Alva, passed
through the Spanish Netherlands to the Rhine
Provinces, and at Cologne took boat for
Bingen. He then hired posthorses, and rode
home through Suabia and Bavaria to Villach^
which he had not seen for three years.
But his travel fever did not suffer him to- rest. Mindful of his vow to visit the Holy Land, he started on his pilgrimage on Dec. 9, 1560, accompanied by the faithful Stosser. The travellers rode to Venice across the Tarvis ; but as no pilgrim ship was available until Whitsuntide, Khevenhuller set out to see something of Italy. He visited the towns of Emilia, and from Rimini took the coast road to Ancona and Loretto, which he found thronged with people, and spent Easter in Rome. The magnificence of the Easter celebrations impressed him greatly, and at St. Peter's on Holy Thursday he had the satisfaction of being solemnly cursed by the Pope, who in his presence denounced all heretics, especially the Lutherans : a proceed- ing which must have reminded him vividly of his uncomfortable Spanish experiences. From Rome he returned by way of Florence to Venice, where twenty-seven German pilgrims had already assembled, among them Kheven- huller' s own cousin Franz. On July 4 they set sail with four hundred other pilgrims for Jaffa, where they arrived in safety on Aug. 1 9. The pilgrims then visited the holy places at Jerusalem, and returned in small parties to the coast ; and on Sept. 20 Kheven- huller again reached Venice. He straight-
