paintings and engravings. A gilded ball glittered
on the summit of each mast, for no canvass was set
higher than the slender and well-balanced yards, and
it was above one of these that the wilted bush, with
its gay appendages, trembled and fluttered in a fresh
western wind. The hull was worthy of so much
goodly apparel, being spacious, commodious, and, according
to the wants of the navigation, of approved mould.
The freight, which was sufficiently obvious, much
the greatest part being piled on the ample deck, consisted
of what our own watermen would term an assorted cargo.
It was, however, chiefly composed of those foreign
luxuries, as they were then called, though use has
now rendered them nearly indispensable to domestic
economy, which were consumed, in singular moderation,
by the more affluent of those who dwelt deeper among
the mountains, and of the two principal products of
the dairy; the latter being destined to a market in
the less verdant countries of the south. To these
must be added the personal effects of an unusual number
of passengers, which were stowed on the top of the
heavier part of the cargo, with an order and care that
their value would scarcely seem to require. The
arrangement, however, was necessary to the convenience
and even to the security of the bark, having been
made by the patron with a view to posting each individual
by his particular wallet, in a manner to prevent confusion
in the crowd, and to leave the crew space and opportunity
to discharge the necessary duties of the navigation.
With a vessel stowed, sails ready to drop, the wind
fair, and the day drawing on apace, the patron of
the Winkelried, who was also her owner, felt a very
natural wish to depart. But an unlooked-for obstacle
had just presented itself at the water-gate, where
the officer charged with the duty of looking into
the characters of all who went and came was posted,
and around whom some fifty representatives of half
as many nations were now clustered in a clamorous
throng, filling the air with a confusion of tongues
that had some probable affinity to the noises which
deranged the workmen of Babel. It appeared, by
parts of sentences and broken remonstrances, equally
addressed to the patron, whose name was Baptiste,
and to the guardian of the Genevese laws, a rumor was
rife among these truculent travellers, that Balthazar,
the headsman, or executioner, of the powerful and
aristocratical canton of Berne, was about to be smuggled
into their company by the cupidity of the former,
contrary, not only to what was due to the feelings
and rights of men of more creditable callings, but,
as it was vehemently and plausibly insisted, to the
very safety of those who were about to trust their
fortunes to the vicissitudes of the elements.