As soon
as the wife knew of her husband's absence, she went to the cathedral.
Her husband was in his old place, his hands upon the keys, as if in
the act of playing, his head bent forward and drooping. He was dead!
From Berne the road climbs a hill immediately on leaving the gates of
the city, and passes between rows of trees, with a gentle slope on
either hand, covered with a soft fresh green and smooth as the finest
lawn. The glimpses of the city through the trees, with the windings of
the Aar, were extremely interesting. But a far nobler scene was
unfolded to the south, where an immense chain of Alps appeared like
the boundaries of some new world, to which their fearful precipices,
glittering peaks, and summits of untrodden snow for ever barred the
approach of man. The purity of the atmosphere gave them peculiar
distinctness of outline, while the beams of the setting sun gilded
their lofty brightness, that seemed to have more of heaven in it than
earth. Oh! if natural scenes can appear so lovely, what must that
purity and lustre be of which they are only the shadowy emblems?
We slept, and set out again at an early hour. Our route lay through
the finest portion of Switzerland. The land is chiefly pasturage, and
the meadows are extremely rich. Traversing a rocky pass, we came to
the castle of Kluss. Issuing from the pass we entered a smiling
valley, the hills gently rising to the right, clothed with forests of
fir; while on the left, rocks towered to an amazing altitude.
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