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Johannes Müller of Wattwil tries to comfort the humiliated and ostracised family. On the 25th Bräker and Anna Maria accompany Anna Katharina to St. Gallen, where she is to appear before the council in three days' time. A "noble friend to humanity"

[not Girtanner, not identified]
lets her stay in his house. During the next three days Bräker and Anna Maria visit friends in St. Gallen and are kindly received everywhere. On the 28th Bräker accompanies his daughter to the prison. On the way home he is accompanied by the "noble friend" mentioned above, who is on his way to Zürich. [Chronik, pp 420-421,
[based on Girtanner's diary as well as Bräker's.]

[During April there were riots in Lichtensteig with a cause dear to Bräker's heart, profiteering in foodstuffs during a shortage, but Bräker was too preoccupied even to mention them.]

20th Apr. Ebel writes to Füssli:

"Our good Bräker in the Toggenburg complains to me, in the letter that you sent on to me, about his dismal situation which is said to be soon to become so wretched as hardly ever before. He asks me to advise him what to do with several manuscripts written five years ago; he would like to make something out of them, especially as things now go so badly with him. He wants to find a publisher in Germany. He says that he also has several manuscripts with you, for which he has already received some money.

I wish with all my heart to be of use to him and will be so. But since I do not know what sort of manuscripts these are, and am doubtful if a publisher would pay much for them, especially since the material of his that has already been printed was not well reviewed and sold badly in Germany, it would be very disagreeable to me if after taking on the manuscripts I found no publisher for them. Yet I think that even if he received only two thalers a sheet, for Bräker that would still be something worth having, and for this price I think he might find a publisher. I have therefore written to him in the enclosed letter, asking him to send the remaining manuscripts to me through yourself." [Voellmy, v 2 pp 35-36]

[On 10th May an assembly in Oberglatt of the communes of the Lower Toggenburg resolved to compile a list of grievances, the Landrat countenanced this and the document was drafted in the house of the landlord of The Lion inn at Wattwil. Besides the usual complaints about feudal dues, the demands included the election of some officials every two years. The raising of militia and the selection of the Bannerherr [military commander] were to be transferred to the Landrat. The list was submitted to the Landrat, but the Catholic members boycotted the meeting and there was disagreement among the Protestants as to whether all the complaints were justifiable. (Bräker evidently thought not, see entry for 30th May below.) Many pamphlets were circulated to express views for and against. This shows how revolutionary action was spreading from the Alte Landschaft to the Toggenburg, though little action was to result for some time yet.]

10th-14th May Bräker is further depressed by the suicide of his neighbour, Hans Boesch,

[whose insanity he mentioned in 1787]
. He is buried in the churchyard, contrary to the custom, by which suicides were buried in unconsecrated ground either on their own land or on some remote hillside. The authorities of Bräker's time, however, were beginning to distinguish different degrees of responsibility and allowed church burial in most cases. [Chronik, p 421]

25th May Bräker admits to taking to drink to drown his sorrows: "Since Easter, since these sad events my heart will no more be lightened. I have begun to call upon the help of brandy. But in the last resort that is worth nothing." [Voellmy, v 2 p 127]

30th May Bräker deliberates over news heard in St. Gallen: rises in price, falling-off in trade, war and revolution in Switzerland, especially in Gossau. He is also made aware that there are malcontents in the Toggenburg, but considers that their grievances do not amount to more than complaints about customs dating from the times of serfdom. He warns his countrymen against following the example of the French: "Revolution is like a catching sickness - the populace do


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