PART I. _Lutetia

_Borg._ Whence comest thou, most delightful Scintilla?

_Scin._ From Lutetia.

_Borg._ What Lutetia is that?

_Scin._ Do you ask which Lutetia, as if there were many!

_Borg._ If there is only one, I don’t know what it is, or where it is situated.

_Scin._ It is the Parisian Lutetia (_Lutetia Parisiorum_).

_Borg._ I have often heard the Parisians spoken of, but never Lutetia. It is, then, that Lutetia which we call Paris? This is the reason then why, for so long, no one has seen thee at Valencia, and especially hast thou been missed at the tennis court (_sphaeristerium_) of the nobles.

_Scin._ I have seen at Lutetia other tennis courts, other gymnasia, other games, far more useful and more attractive than yours at Valencia.

_Borg._ What are those, pray?

_Scin._ There are thirty gymnasia, more or less, in that university (_academia_), which provides for every kind of erudition, knowledge, and wisdom; learned teachers, and most studious youths, who are thoroughly well-bred.

_Borg._ Forsooth, a crowd of people!

_Scin._ What do you call a crowd?

_Borg._ The dregs of the people, sons of shoemakers, weavers, barbers, fullers, and every kind of operative artificers.

_Scin._ I see that you people here measure the whole world by your city, and think that all Europe has the same customs which you have here. I can tell you, that the youth there very largely consists of princes, leaders of men, nobles, and the wealthiest persons, not only from France, but also from Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Spain, Belgium, marvellously devoted to the study of letters, obeying the precepts and instructions of their teachers. Their conduct is not formed through simple admonition merely, but by sharp reproof and, when it is necessary, even by punishment, by blows and lashes. All which they receive and bear with modest mind and the most collected countenance.

_Valencia_

_Caban._ I have often heard stories told of the university, when I was acting as ambassador (_legatus_) of King Ferdinand. But please now leave this topic, or defer it for another time. You see that we have now entered the Miracle Playground (_in ludo Miraculi_), which lies next to the Carrossi Square. Come, now, let our conversation turn to the pleasurable topic of the playing-ball (_pila_).

_Scin._ I should like it as long as we don’t sit down, but go on talking, as we walk about. Then it would be very agreeable. Where shall we go? Shall we take this way, which leads to St. Stephen’s Church, or that way to the Royal Gate, where we then can visit the palace of Ferdinand, Duke of Calabria?

_Caban._ Don’t let us by any chance interrupt the studies in wisdom of that best of princes.

_Walk through the City of Valencia_

_Borg._ It would be better if we were to get mules so that we might ride and talk.

_Caban._ Don’t let us, I beg, lose the use of the feet and the legs; the weather is clear and bright, and the air cool; it will be more satisfactory to go on foot than on horseback.

_Borg._ Then let us go this way by St. John’s Hospital to the Marine Quarter.

_Caban._ Let us observe, by the way, the beautiful objects we pass by.

_Borg._ What, on foot! This will be a disgrace.

_Scin._ In my opinion, it is a greater disgrace if men hang upon the judgments of inexperienced and stupid girls.

_Caban._ Would you like to go straight along Fig Street and St. Thecla Street?

_Scin._ No, but through the quarter of the Cock Tavern (_tabernae gallinaceae_). For in that quarter I should like to see the house in which my Vives was born. It is situated, as I have heard, to the left as we descend, quite at the end of the quarter. I will take the opportunity to call upon his sister.

_Borg._ Let us put aside calling on women, but if you wish to speak with a woman, let us go rather to Angela Zabata, with whom we could have a chat on questions of learning.

_Caban._ If you wish to do so, would that we met the Marchioness Zeneti!

_Scin._ If those reports, which I heard of her when I was in France, were true, then we might have a greater subject of discussion than could easily be treated especially by those busied about anything else.

_Borg._ Let us go up to St. Martin’s or down through the Vallesian Quarter to the Villa Rasa Street.

_Caban._ From that place to the tennis court (_sphaeristerium_) of Barzius, or, if you prefer, to that of the Masconi.

_Games—Ball_

_Borg._ Have you also in France, public grounds for games like ours?

_Scin._ As to other French cities, I cannot answer you. I know that there is none in Paris, but there are many private grounds, for example, in the suburbs of St. James, St. Marcellus, and St. Germanus.

_Caban._ And in the city itself the most famous, which is called Braccha.

_Borg._ Is the game played in the same way as here?

_Scin._ Exactly so, except that the teacher there furnishes playing shoes and caps.

_Borg._ What sort are they?

_Scin._ The shoes are made of felt.

_Borg._ But they would not be of any use here.

_Caban._ That is, on a stony road. In France indeed, and in Belgium, they play on a pavement, covered over with tiles, level and smooth.

_Scin._ The caps worn are lighter in summer, but in winter, thick and deep, with a band under the chin, so that as the player moves about, the cap shall not fall off the head or fall down over the eyes.

_Borg._ We don’t here use a band, except when there is a pretty strong wind. But what kind of balls do they use?

_Scin._ Not such light wind-balls as here, but smaller balls than yours, and much harder, made of white leather. The stuffing of the balls is not, as it is in yours, wool torn from rags, but chiefly dogs’ hair. For this reason the game is rarely played with the palm of the hand.

_Borg._ In what way, then, do they strike the ball? with the fist, as we do the leather ball?

_Scin._ No, but with a net.

_Borg._ Woven from thread?

_Scin._ From somewhat thicker strings, such as are found for the most part on the six-stringed lyre. They have a stretched rope, and, as to the rest, the game is played as in the houses here. To send the ball under the rope is a fault, or loss of a point. There are two signs or, if you prefer, limits. The counting goes fifteen, thirty, forty-five or (advantage), equality of numbers and victory, which is twofold, as when it is said: “We have won a game” or “We have won a set.” The ball, indeed, is either sent back whilst in its flight or thrown back after the first bound. For on the second bound, the stroke is invalid, and a mark is made where the ball was struck.

_Borg._ Are there no other games there except tennis?

_Scin._ In the city as many or more than here, but amongst scholars, no other is permitted by the masters. But sometimes, secretly, they play at cards and dice, the little boys with the knuckle-bones (_tali_), the worse sort of boys with dice (_taxilli_). We have a teacher Anneus who used to allow card-playing at festival times (_obscoeno die_). For that and for games in general, he composed six laws written on a tablet which he hung in his bed-chamber.

_Borg._ If it is not burdensome, may I ask you to tell them to us, in the same way as you have told us of other matters.

_Scin._ But let us continue our walk, for I am possessed by an inconceivably keen desire to behold my country which I have not seen for so long a period.

_Borg._ Let us mount mules, so that we may move along pleasantly, as well as with more dignity.

_Scin._ I would not give a snap of the fingers for this dignity!

_Borg._ And I, if I may confess the truth, would not move my hand for it. Nor do I know why riding on mules seems to be more becoming for us.

_Caban._ This is rightly said; we are three, and in the narrow streets or concourse of men we should get parted from one another, whence our talk would necessarily be interrupted, or many remarks made by some one of us would not be thoroughly heard or understood by the others.

_Borg._ So let it be; let us proceed on foot. Enter through this narrow lane on to the Pegnarogii Street.

_The Market_

_Scin._ Nothing could be better. Thence by the keysmith’s into the Sweetmeats Quarter (_vicum dulciarium_), then into the fruit market.

_Borg._ Nay, rather the vegetable market.

_Scin._ The market is both. Those who prefer to eat vegetables call it the vegetable market; those who prefer fruit call it the fruit market. What a spaciousness there is of the market, what a multitude of sellers and of things exposed for sale! What a smell of fruit, what variety, cleanliness, and brightness! Gardens could hardly be thought to contain fruit equal to the supply of what is in this market. What skill and diligence our inspector (_aedilis_) of public property and his ministers show so that no buyer shall be taken in by fraud. Is not he who is riding about so much, Honoratus Joannius?

_Caban._ I think not, for one of my boys, who met him just now, left him retiring to his library. If he knew that we were here together then he would undoubtedly join us in our conversation and would postpone his serious studies to our play.

_Borg._ Now at last describe the laws of play!

_Scin._ We will withdraw from this crowd by the Street of the Holy Virgin the Redeemer, to the Smoky street and to St. Augustine’s, where there are fewer people.

_Caban._ Let us not go down so far away from the main body of the city. Let us rather ascend through the street of Money-Purses to the Hill, then to the Soldiers’ Quarter and the house of your family, Scintilla, whose walls yet seem to me to mourn over that hero, Count Olivanus!

_Borg._ Nay, they have now laid aside their grief, and now rejoice in all seriousness that such a youth has stepped into the place of so great an old man.

_Scin._ Oh, how delightful it is to look into the Senate House (_curia_) and the fourfold court of the governor of the city (_praefectus urbis_), which by now seems almost to have become the heritage of your family, Cabanillius—one part of the building for a civil, another for a criminal, court, and this part for the three hundred solidi. What buildings! what a glory of the city!