relief in being permitted to make the change. Sigismund was rewarded for
this act of good-nature by a smile from Adelheid, who thought his warm
interference in behalf of one, seemingly so much his inferior, did no
discredit to his rank. It is possible that the youthful soldier had some
secret sentiment of the advantage he derived from his kind interest in the
stranger, for his brow flushed, and he looked more satisfied with himself,
after this little office of humanity had been performed.

"You are better among us here," the baron kindly observed, when the Herr
Mueller was fairly established in his new situation, "than among the
freight of the honest Nicklaus Wagner, who, Heaven help the worthy
peasant! has loaded us fairly to the water's edge, with the notable
industry of his dairy people. I like to witness the prosperity of our
burghers, but it would have been better for us travellers, at least, had
there been less of the wealth of honest Nicklaus in our company. Are you
of Berne, or of Zurich?"

"Of Berne, Herr Baron."

"I might have guessed that by finding you on the Genfer See, instead of
the Wallenstaetter. There are many of the Muellers in the Emmen Thal?"

"The Herr is right; the name is frequent, both in that valley, and in
Entlibuch."

"It is a frequent appellation among us of the Teutonick stock. I had many
Muellers in my company, Gaetano, when we lay before Mantua, I remember that
two of the brave fellows were buried in the marshes of that low country;
for the fever helped the enemy as much as the sword, in the life-wasting
campaign of the year we besieged the place."

The more observant Italian saw that the stranger was distressed by the
personal nature of the conversation, and, while he quietly assented to his
friend's remark, he took occasion to give it a new direction.

"You travel, like ourselves, Signore, to get a look at these far-famed
revels of the Vevasians?"

"That, and affairs, have brought me into this honorable company;" answered
the Herr Mueller, whom no kindness of tone, however, could win from his
timid and subdued manner of speaking.

"And thou, father," turning to the Augustine, "art journeying towards thy
mountain residence, after a visit of love to the valleys and their
people?"

The monk of St. Bernard assented to the truth of this remark, explaining
the manner in which his community were accustomed annually to appeal to
the liberality of the generous in Switzerland, in behal