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- I can guess the purpose. Herr Oberamtmann Sulzer of Kreuzlingen and Herr P. Müller are bosom friends. No doubt he is visiting him. Now my dear Sulzer had long since promised me a visit, as soon as Herr Müller came to him. To be sure, to be sure, these dear friends of humanity will come through the Toggenburg on their return journey, and will want to pay a visit to my unworthy self, and will be disappointed, just as I am here. A sad trick of fate!

Full of ill humour I enquired after Junker Stadtsschreiber [Squire Town Clerk] Pfeifer's house. I fared little better there. At first I was told the household was at their midday meal. I could come back later. Well, I was getting hungry too. So I went to the Lime Tree to rid myself of hunger. I found a very merry company there, a roomful of recruits with their officers going to Belmunde. There were musicians and girls from Luzern and Entlibuch with their short skirts, all ready for dancing. For it was the day of the annual fair in Luzern. Satisfying my hunger amid this cheerful company drove away in a little while the ill humour of my disappointed hopes of making the acquaintance of two well-known men, friends of mankind. [...] I could recall so exactly those capers and sprightly leaps of youth, as the recruits jigged and waltzed round with the Luzern girls in their straw hats, so that the girls held their hats with one hand and their skirts with the other, so that the skirts should not fly up too far. Oh, that brought those days before me so vividly that I could have shed melancholy tears.

But I tore myself away, to have another try at Squire Pfeifer's house. I knocked at the door. The same woman appeared at a window. She said he was busy now. I should come again towards evening. But I was in haste and all the more so now, because I hoped I might steal a march on those two dear men from Konstanz. - I wanted to go by Entlibuch too. So after I had admired the town, the lake, the Reuss bridge

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and so on for a little while more, I went [...] to Schachen. There, I was told, I would find enough people from Entlibuch to go with me across the mountain of Bramegg.

I went back to my inn. Evening was coming on. From time to time people from Entlibuch installed themselves there, and they all said that they were coming away from Luzern and travelling homewards. But they all sat down, ordered food and drink, and soon it was pitch dark. I was still determined to go with them to Entlibuch. Finally these people began to fool about, gambling and drinking one half after another, and were now all of one mind to stay there until the moon rose. That was about midnight. My patience was at an end. Two, three hours of journeying in the middle of the night, over an unknown mountain path, with drunken strangers, I had little desire for that. Since I was weary and sleepy besides, I decided to go to bed and wait for morning, and then to make out the way alone by daylight. I asked to be shown to a bedchamber. But it was right over the bar-room, where the trampling and horseplay gave me no sleep, until the moon rose and those fellows set off. But scarcely had I slept a few hours when the noise started up again. Some carters' lads clattered up and down the stairs all over the house, waking up the serving-men and maids. They had to open the bar and make coffee. Some of them ordered brandy. Then they went to harness up. Now I also left my bed. I thought it would soon be day. But I could not wait any longer. At last there came a man from Entlibuch, who coming from Luzern had spent a night on the way, ordered breakfast in Schachen, and was intending to go on over the Bramegg. I was glad of this and went along with him as soon as the day broke.

Now the way led uphill at times and at times on the level, and there were footpaths on all sides, so that I knew for certain I should not have found the right way without enquiring for it. Yet the whole mountain is inhabited right up to the highest slopes. [...] My companion was a very friendly, talkative man, and as I had guessed, a cattle-dealer. For he stopped at every byre and asked questions about cows and calves. I fretted at the delay. When I had reached the top and could see Entlibuch, I waited no longer for my guide. Then fog descended and hid the higher mountains from my sight. In the village of Entlibuch I ordered a good breakfast of gruel. [...].

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Thaddaeus Müller, see note for 1st October 1796. "Squire Pfeiffer" was Alphons Josef Alois Johann Baptist Pfyffer von Heideg, Stadtschreiber [Town clerk] of Luzern. [Chronik, p 538]



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