]
Chance companions of the road should not be trusted. Lest the traveller
should become too well known to them, let him always declare that he is
going no further than the next city. Arrived there, he may give them the
slip and start with fresh consorts.

Moryson himself, when forced to travel in company, chose Germans, kindly
honest gentlemen, of his own religion. He could speak German well enough
to pass as one of them, but in fear lest even a syllable might betray
his nationality to the sharp spies at the city gates, he made an
agreement with his companions that when he was forced to answer
questions they should interrupt him as soon as possible, and take the
words out of his mouth, as though in rudeness. If he were discovered
they were to say they knew him not, and flee away.[194]

Moryson advised the traveller to see Rome and Naples first, because
those cities were the most dangerous. Men who stay in Padua some months,
and afterwards try Rome, may be sure that the Jesuits and priests there
are informed, not only of their coming, but of their condition and
appearance by spies in Padua. It were advisable to change one's
dwelling-place often, so to avoid the inquiries of priests. At Easter,
in Rome, Moryson found the fullest scope for his genius. A few days
before Easter a priest came to his lodgings and took the inmates' names
in writing, to the end that they might receive the Sacrament with the
host's family. Moryson went from Rome on the Tuesday before Easter, came
to Siena on Good Friday, and upon Easter eve "(pretending great
business)" darted to Florence for the day. On Monday morning he dodged
to Pisa, and on the folowing, back to Siena. "Thus by often changing
places I avoyded the Priests inquiring after mee, which is most
dangerous about Easter time, when all men receive the Sacrament."[195]

The conception of travel one gathers from Fynes Moryson is that of a
very exciting form of sport, a sort of chase across Europe, in which the
tourist was the fox, doubling and turning and diving into cover, while
his friends in England laid three to one on his death. So dangerous was
travel at this time, that wagers on the return of venturous gentlemen
became a fashionable form of gambling.[196] The custom emanated from
Germany, Moryson explains, and was in England first used at Court and
among "very Noble men." Moryson himself put out L100 to receive L300 on
his return; but by 1595, when he contemplated a second journ