The Poor Man of Toggenburg - Autobiography of Ulrich Bräker

market-price of corn, fruit and all things edible and inedible. Then he spoke in praise of his property, and prated long and loud about the adventures of his youth, probable and improbable, chattered about his present business affairs as if he were the greatest merchant in Europe. At last we overtook a few other travelling companions who were going the same way. These people took the loquacious tanner off my neck, for which I was heartily thankful. I joined up with a harness-maker from Ermendingen, who showed himself less pompous. He went with me as far as Kreuzlingen. But before that, since it began to rain very hard, we stopped at Hub. We ate a small portion of good mutton with turnips and had a good glass of wine with it. Ah, there my conversational tanner was properly scared. But I and my harness-maker went on again before the rest.

In Kesswil my harness-maker had to make a small detour on a business matter. I promised to wait for him. I turned in at The Ox, I think. I ordered a dram. The inn stands very close to the church. Through the window I could hear every word the parson uttered and listened carefully. I observed that it was a funeral sermon and nearly finished. And thereupon they struck up a fine hymn. Afterwards great crowds of attenders came out, and finally the pastor in his clerical robes, a respectable man of whom I still know nothing, yet I had heard the conclusion of his funeral sermon with contentment. Melancholy sensations came over me. Ah, I thought, 'tis the same all over the world with all kinds of religion: one likes to take part in the religious ceremonies one was born to, and is accustomed to, and most people mean well by it and think they are doing the Supreme Being a favour, and their teachers strengthen them in this error.

I asked the landlady who the dead person was, for I had heard the parson speak of an unfortunate person. "That was not the dead person", said she, "but her sister. She is a crazy girl. Like a beast she runs with the other beasts in the pasture, and her sister, her that they were burying just now, watched over her like a sister, nay, like a mother. Now that she's dead the parson will have entrusted this witless girl to the nearest relations." "Yes, no doubt", said I, and thought: the human race is the same everywhere, near and far. We have just such crazy people where I come from. Everywhere there's those with sense and those who are half-witted, the half foolish and the wholly foolish, people born brutes and people who become like brutes, people in their right minds, fanatics, hypocrites, simpletons of every cut and fashion, here, there and everywhere.

Meanwhile my travelling companion the harness-maker arrived, drank another half and talked about his craft - how he had had to take back dozens of straw saddles, how much it was going to cost him, and so on. Now we were approaching Konstanz.

My heart leaped up high when I saw Konstanz. For I had long since nourished in my bosom a wistful desire to see once again Konstanz and the countryside round about. But an indescribable, irresistible hankering was the mainspring of this journey, and that was: to make the acquaintance of a man that I knew only from a few lines, not written to me but about me, who signed himself S., Oberamtmann of Kreuzlingen

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. At Kreuzlingen my travelling companion parted from me. We bade one another farewell. Then I stood still for a long while. I looked at the wall of the monastery, the church and so on, peeped in at the monastery court and saw nothing but farmhands and day-labourers and a whole flock of poultry. No, I thought, you certainly won't announce yourself this evening. You're so dirty, wet and weary. And moreover, it's already very late. And who knows what sort of a noble gentleman he is! He might be angry with you! Then everything would be ruined right away. For I fear the scorn of great people worse than a mad dog! No, I will wait till tomorrow and then make enquiries and wait for the right moment. Thus thought I and went on my way. I saw a woman in a house, a lady or a mademoiselle, from the window. I asked he if Herr Oberamtmann S. lived there in the monastery. No, said she, he lives in the city, but he comes to the monastery every day. Is he still here today? I asked. I don't know, she said, but I hardly think so, for it's already late. Now I trotted on right into Konstanz and enquired for a good lodging for the night.