Favre reached the St. Gothard full of hope. The battle with the colossus
did not displease him, and his courage and his confidence in the success
of the work seemed to increase in measure as the circumstances
surrounding the boring became more difficult. In the presence of the
terrible inundation of the gallery of Airolo and the falling of
aquiferous rocks, creating in the subterranean work so desperate a
situation that a large number of very experienced engineers almost
advised the abandonment of the works, Favre remained impassive. Amid the
general apprehension, which, it may be readily comprehended, was felt in
such a situation he made his confident and cheerful voice heard,
reviving the ardor of all, and speaking disdainfully of "that
insignificant Gothard, which would come out all right." The _personnel_
of the enterprise were not the only ones, however, who were uneasy over
the constantly occurring difficulties in the way of the work, for the
company itself and the Swiss Federal Council made known to Favre their
fears that the execution of the work would be delayed. He, however,
calmed their fears, and exposed his projects to them, and the seances
always ended by a vote of confidence in the future of the undertaking.
Favre certainly did not dissimulate the difficulties that he should have
to conquer, but he execrated those who were timorous and always tried to
put confidence into those who surrounded him. But, singular phenomenon,
he ended by deceiving himself and, at certain times, it would not have
been easy to prove to him that the St. Gothard was not the most easy
undertaking in the world. Those who have lived around him know the jokes
that he sometimes made at the expense of poor Gothard, which paid him
back with interest, however, and did not allow itself to be pierced so
easy after all.

Such confidence as existed in the first years, however, was not to exist
for ever. The tunnel advanced, the heading deepened, but at the price of