Having rested a few days at Chiavenna, I resumed my journey quite
refreshed, continuing it through the country of the Grisons, and the two
small cantons of Ury and Underwald, to the canton of Lucerne. There
I missed my way, as I was quite unacquainted with the country, and
discovering a city at a distance, was advancing to it, but slowly, as I
knew not where I was, when a countryman whom I met, informed me that the
city before me was Lucerne. Upon that intelligence, I turned out of the
road as soon as the countryman was out of sight, and that night I
passed with a good natured shepherd in his cottage, who supplied me with
sheep's milk, and my horse with plenty of grass. I set out early next
morning, making my way westward, as I knew that Berne lay west of
Lucerne. But, after a few miles, the country proved very mountainous,
and having travelled the whole day over mountains I was overtaken among
them by night. As I was looking out for a place where I might shelter
myself during the night, against the snow and rain, (for it both snowed
and rained,) I perceived a light at a distance, and making towards it,
I got into a kind of foot-path, but so narrow and rugged that I was
obliged to lead my horse, and feel my way with one foot, (having no
light to direct me,) before I durst move the other. Thus, with much
difficulty I reached the place where the light was, a poor little
cottage, and knocking at the door, was asked by a man within who I was,
and what I wanted? I answered that I was a stranger and had lost my way.
"Lost your way!" exclaimed the man, "There is no way here to lose." I
then asked him what canton I was in? and upon his answering that I was
in the canton of Berne, I cried out transported with joy, "I thank God
that I am." The good man answered, "And so do I." I then told him who I
was, and that I was going to Berne but had quite lost myself by keeping
out of all the high roads, to avoid falling into the hands of those
who sought my destruction. He thereupon opened the door, received and
entertained me with all the hospitality his poverty would admit of;
regaled me with sour crout and some new laid eggs, the only provision
he had, and clean straw with a kind of rug for a bed, he having no other
for himself and wife. The good woman expressed as much good nature as
her husband, and said many kind things in the Swiss language, which
her husband interpreted to me in the Italian; for that language he well
understood, having learned it in his youth, while servant in a public
home on the borders of Italy, where both languages are spoken. I never
passed a more comfortable night; and no sooner did I begin to stir in
the morning, than the good man and his wife both came to know how
I rested; and, wishing they had been able to accommodate me better,
obliged me to breakfast on two eggs, which providence, they said, had
sent them for that purpose. I took leave of the wife, who seemed most
sincerely to wish me a good journey.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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