peasant! has loaded us fairly to the water's edge, with the notable
industry of his dairy people. I like to witness the prosperity of our
burghers, but it would have been better for us travellers, at least, had
there been less of the wealth of honest Nicklaus in our company. Are you
of Berne, or of Zurich?"

"Of Berne, Herr Baron."

"I might have guessed that by finding you on the Genfer See, instead of
the Wallenstätter. There are many of the Müllers in the Emmen Thal?"

"The Herr is right; the name is frequent, both in that valley, and in
Entlibuch."

"It is a frequent appellation among us of the Teutonick stock. I had many
Müllers in my company, Gaetano, when we lay before Mantua, I remember that
two of the brave fellows were buried in the marshes of that low country;
for the fever helped the enemy as much as the sword, in the life-wasting
campaign of the year we besieged the place."

The more observant Italian saw that the stranger was distressed by the
personal nature of the conversation, and, while he quietly assented to his
friend's remark, he took occasion to give it a new direction.

"You travel, like ourselves, Signore, to get a look at these far-famed
revels of the Vévasians?"

"That, and affairs, have brought me into this honorable company;" answered
the Herr Müller, whom no kindness of tone, however, could win from his
timid and subdued manner of speaking.