Rimella were in it, somehow, and those of Pregemella in the Val
Dobbia. I cannot make out whether the Pregemella people were Germans
or merely people; either way, the German-speaking villages in the Val
Sesia appear to have been the same two hundred years ago as now. I
mean, it does not seem that the German-speaking race extended lower
down the valley then than now. But at any rate, the queen, or
whoever "Madama Reale" may be, was very angry about the battle.


"It is the custom," concludes our author, "in token of holy
cheerfulness (allegria spirituale) to wear a sprig of pine in the hat
on leaving the holy place, to show that the visitor has been there;
for it has some fine pine trees. This custom was introduced in royal
merriment by Carlo Emmanuele I. He put a sprig in his hat, and was
imitated by all his court, and the ladies wore the same in their
bosom or in their hair. Assuredly it is one of the wonders of the
world to see here, amid the amenities and allurements of the country,
especially during the summer season, what a continuous festa or holy
fair is maintained. For there come and go torrents of men and women
of every nation under heaven. Here you shall see pilgrims and
persons in religion of every description, processions, prelates, and
often princes and princesses, carriages, litters, caleches,
equipages, cavalcades accompanied by trumpeters, gay troops of
cavaliers, and ladies with plumes in their hats and rich apparel
wherewithal to make themselves attractive; and at intervals you shall
hear all manner of songs, concerts, and musical instruments, both
civil and military, all done with a modest and devout cheerfulness of
demeanour, by which I am reminded of nothing so strongly as of the
words of the Psalmist in the which he saith 'Come and see the works
of the Lord, for He hath done wonders upon earth.'"