- cepted, always remained faithful to the Protestant
cause. However this may be, Tavernier, who was constantly surrounded by the maps of foreign lands, and by persons who conversed of little else, very early conceived the design of "seeing the world," and being furnished with the necessary funds by his parents or friends, commenced his long wanderings by a visit to England, from whence he passed over into Flanders, in order to behold his native city.
The rumour of the wars then about to burst forth in Germany kindled the martial spirit in the mind of our youthful traveller, who, moving through Frankfort and Augsburg towards Nuremburg, fell in with Hans Brenner, a colonel of cavalry, son to the governor of Vienna, and was easily prevailed upon to join his corps, then marching into Bohemia. His adventures in these wars he himself considered unworthy of being recorded. It is simply insinuated that he was present at the battle of Prague, some time after which he became a page to the governor of Raab, then viceroy of Hungary. In this situation he had remained four years and a half, when the young Prince of Mantua arrived at Raab on his way to Vienna, and with the consent of the viceroy took Tavernier along with him in quality of interpreter.
This circumstance inspired him with the desire of visiting Italy; and obtaining his dismissal from the viceroy, who, at parting, presented him with a sword, a pair of pistols, a horse, and, what was of infinitely greater consequence, a good purse filled with ducats, he entered as interpreter into the service of M. de Sabran, the French envoy to the emperor, and proceeded to Venice. From this city, which he compares with Amsterdam, he removed in the train of M. de Sabran to Mantua, where he remained during the siege of that place by the imperial troops. Here, engaging with a small number of young men in a reconnoitring party, he narrowly
