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it was to get their hands on its huge treasury. They added insult to injury by removing the city's mascots, the bears which for centuries had held a place similar to that of the ravens in the Tower of London.]

11th Mar. "The consequence of all these events is widespread uneasiness and perturbation of spirit here and everywhere in our Helvetia. Though in very differing manners. With the majority there is widespread confusion, fear and terror, with others there is bitterness, not so much against the French, who now wish to conquer the whole of our hemisphere, but rather against so many faithless confederates, of the kind which may be found in herds in every corner, in all the cantons and regions, who like scabby sheep taint many of the healthy ones and infect them with their disease. For even those who are warm friends to the French, or Jacobins if you like, for whom everything that the French do is right, even though they should turn everything upside-down. These people rejoice and make merry above measure that we should receive the honour of a visit from this so noble, bold and magnanimous nation, who in all modesty lay their hands on the great cities and monasteries, to do as they are accustomed, take the superfluous honey from these rich beehives, but also now and then must needs round up the fat ox, swine or sheep from the industrious peasant.

Enough. With these non-patriots everything is right that these Frenchmen do, and they would hardly regret it even if their own skins were at stake. For now these guests are in our country, yes, even in the heart of Helvetia, and march unhindered from one place to another. How they will make their home there, time alone must tell us. Wherever men meet together in the taverns, nothing is spoken of but these events, a talking and chattering enough to make you sick. For everyone claims to have the most reliable news, everyone has the impudence to tell in advance what will happen next. And yet one knows as little as the next, and everyone can only guess, because no real news has yet arrived from Bern and thereabouts.

Not long since the militia of St. Gallen have passed through here and have spent the night at Lichtensteig. They are now engaged in making a counter-march home, and tell many and various tales of the events at Solothurn and Bern and the frontier districts there. Some jokers indeed sometimes answer the eager enquirers after news with some leg-pull or other, which in a trice is given out for certainty. So concluding from all information, as also from all action, because all the militia are returning home again, the situation cannot be so dangerous, or else people want to let the French do just as they please and submit to their will in everything." [Voellmy, v 2 pp 317-319]

[The call for the militia to help defend Freiburg and Solothurn had met with a very half-hearted response. St. Gallen had sent two contingents of a hundred men each, both arrived too late to be of any use.]

15th Mar. An assembly described by Bräker as "the first free - independent and wholly Protestant Landsgemeind in the Toggenburg" takes place in Wattwil. Cantonal officials are chosen from the people's representatives. All passes off quietly, although some Catholics are also present, they intend to hold a separate assembly in Bütschwil in a week's time. Bräker would have preferred a joint assembly. [Chronik, pp 454-455]

22nd Mar.

This entry is prefaced by some notes from Voellmy:
"During the weeks of political upheaval Bräker feels more and more incapable of overcoming his personal circumstances. Already he bears the seeds of a serious illness. Economically he is a ruined man. The failed cloth business of his son-in-law plunges him in debt of which he sees no way out. He hopes to find means to combat his illness from Dr. Sulzer of Winterthur. For the other problem he will seek, as so often before, comfort and advice from his benefactor Daniel Girtanner in St. Gallen. And his friends at Zürich, Füssli above all, will not leave him in the lurch. So on the 22nd March he sets off on the tiring journey on foot. The distance he could formerly travel in one hour now takes him half an hour longer. St. Gallen, Konstanz, Zürich and St. Gallen again is his route."
[This glosses


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