d a square; there was an opening in the wall from one room to
the other, in the form of an arch. The dancing-room was to be the
stage, and before the arch hung a curtain: the dining-room was for the
spectators. A platform and benches gave more than a thousand seats, and
a gallery attached to the wall opposite to the curtain served as boxes.
The plan of the stage arrangements was devised by a genuine artist, the
painter Disteli, of Solothurn, known by his pictures of Swiss battles;
the union took charge of the execution of it. It begged the common
council to signify what trees might be cut to supply the necessary
timber; crowds went out; the trees fell under the strokes of the axe;
the lads harnessed themselves to them, putting on the tinkling-bells of
the sledge-horses, and exultingly dragged the stems down the steep
hill-path to the saw-mill. Then came the carpenters of the village,
assisted by a sufficient number of men; in a short time the theatre
was ready. The decorations were much aided by the misfortune of a
play-manager, who, with his company, had for a long time been giving
representations in a neighbouring city, but then had been obliged, by
the pressure, not of the public, but of creditors, to go away, leaving
behind him the whole of his theatrical properties. The scenery,
therefore, was in the custody of the city, and the theatrical union
succeeded in hiring, for a moderate sum, what was necessary--a room, a
street, a wood, and even a dark prison. The costumes were designed by
the painter Disteli; he coloured not only the particular dresses
faithfully, according to the attire of the time and place, but
contrived how it might be most cheaply carried out, by using the
articles of dress that were at hand,--the aprons, bodices, shawls, and
cloaks of the women. Whilst the village tailor worked, with an
additional journeyman, incessantly at the costumes which required a
higher degree of dexterity, the maidens occupied themselves for weeks
with the smart dresses of the noble ladies, and the simple, picturesque
attire of the women of the people; and many heroes owed to the taste
and skill of a sister or a future bride the plumed cap and mantle which
made him an object of admiration. If the dress, even less than the
wearers, left little to desire, so did the equipment of the soldiers
give a peculiar excellence to this performance; for the union addressed
a petition to the government of the Canton, to allow them the use