on. The sunset was splendid: I see it still; its violet clouds all
fringed with gold, for I remember the smallest details of that evening.

"Dittmar went down first; he was the only one of us who knew how to swim;
so he walked before us to show us the depth. The water was about up to
our chests, and he, who preceded us, was up to his shoulders, when he
warned us not to go farther, because he was ceasing to feel the bottom.
He immediately gave up his footing and began to swim, but scarcely had he
made ten strokes when, having reached the place where the river separates
into two branches, he uttered a cry, and as he was trying to get a
foothold, disappeared. We ran at once to the bank, hoping to be able to
help him more easily; but we had neither poles nor ropes within reach,
and, as I have told you, neither of us could swim. Then we called for
help with all our might. At that moment Dittmar reappeared, and by an
unheard-of effort seized the end of a willow branch that was hanging over
the water; but the branch was not strong enough to resist, and our friend
sank again, as though he had been struck by apoplexy. Can you imagine
the state in which we were, we his friends, bending over the river, our
fixed and haggard eyes trying to pierce its depth? My God, my God! how
was it we did not go mad?

"A great crowd, however, had run at our cries. For two hours they sought
far him with boats and drag-hooks; and at last they succeeded in drawing
his body from the gulf. Yesterday we bore it solemnly to the field of
rest.

"Thus with the end of this spring has begun the serious summer of my
life. I greeted it in a grave and melancholy mood, and you behold me
now, if not consoled, at least strengthened by religion, which, thanks to
the merits of Christ, gives me the assurance of meeting my friend in