... Let me describe to you, my dear Beatus, the whole tragi-comedy of my
journey. I was still weak and listless, as you know, when I left Basle,
not having come to terms with the climate, after skulking at home so
long, and occupied in uninterrupted labors at that. The river voyage was
not unpleasant, but that around midday the heat of the sun was somewhat
trying. We had a meal at Breisach, the most unpleasant meal I have ever
had. The smell of food nearly finished me, and then the flies, worse
than the smell. We sat at table doing nothing for more than half an
hour, waiting for them to produce their banquet, if you please. In the
end nothing fit to eat was served; filthy porridge with lumps in it and
salt fish reheated not for the first time, enough to make one sick. I
did not call on Gallinarius. The man who brought word that he was
suffering from a slight fever also told me a pretty story; that Minorite
theologian with whom I had disputed about _heceitas_[74] had taken it on
himself to pawn the church chalices. Scotist ingenuity! Just before
nightfall we were put out at a dull village; I did not feel like
discovering its name, and if I knew I should not care to tell you it. I
nearly perished there. We had supper in a small room like a
sweating-chamber, more than sixty of us, I should say, an indiscriminate
collection of rapscallions, and this went on till nearly ten o'clock;
oh, the stench, and the noise, particularly after they had become
intoxicated! Yet we had to remain sitting to suit their clocks.

In the morning while it was still quite dark we were driven from bed by
the shouting of the sailors. I went on board without having either
supped or slept. We reached Strasbourg before lunch, at about nine
o'clock; there we had a more comfortable reception, particularly as
Schuerer produced some wine. Some of the Society[75] were there, and
afterwards they all came to greet me, Gerbel outdoing all the rest in
politeness. Gebwiler and Rudolfingen did not want me to pay, no new
thing with them. Thence we proceeded on horseback as far as Speyer; we
saw no sign of soldiers anywhere, although there had been alarming
rumours. The English horse completely collapsed and hardly got to
Speyer; that criminal smith had handled him so badly that he ought to
have both his ears branded with red-hot iron. At Speyer I slipped away
from the inn and took myself to my neighbour Maternus. There Decanus, a
learned and cultivated man, entert