he places
where they were to stop in the night, or time of repose, though broad
daylight. On these occasions, their guide, knowing the customs of the
country, opened the door of the house without ceremony, in which they found
a table surrounded by benches covered with leathern cushions, stuffed with
feathers, which served them for mattresses. As nothing was locked up, they
took such victuals as they could find, and then went to rest. Sometimes the
masters of the houses in which they stopt would come in and find them
asleep, and be much amazed till the guide acquainted them with their story,
on which their astonishment became mingled with compassion, and they would
give the travellers every thing necessary without taking any remuneration;
by which means these twelve persons, with the three horses, did not spend
more than the four guilders they had received at Drontheim, during their
journey of fifty-three days.

On the road they met with horrid barren mountains and vallies, and with a
great number of animals like roes[1], besides abundance of fowls, such as
hasel-hens, and heath-cocks, which were as white as snow, and pheasants the
size of a goose[2]. In St Olave's church at Drontheim, they saw the skin of
a white bear, which was fourteen feet and a half long; and they observed
other birds, such as gerfalcons, goss-hawks[3], and several other kinds of
hawks, to be much whiter than in other places, on account of the coldness
of the country.

Four days before they reached Stegeborg, they came to a town called
Wadstena, in which St Bridget was born, and where she had founded a
nunnery, together with chaplains of the same order. At this place the
northern kings and princes have built a most magnificent church covered
with copper, in which they counted sixty-two altars. The nuns and chaplains
received the strangers with great kindness; and, after resting two days,
they set out to wait on the chevalier Giovanne Franco, who relieved them in
a manner that did honour to his generosity, and did every thing in his
power to comfort them in their distressed situation. A fortnight after
their arrival at his residence, a plenary indulgence was given at the
church of St Bridget, in Wadstena, to which people from Denmark, Norway,
and Sweden, and even from Germany, Holland, and Scotland, came to partake;
some of whom came from a distance of more than 600 miles. They went to the
indulgence at Wadstena along with Giovanne Franco, in order t