276 A True Adventure. [March, 



Now Sebastian was a German in physique ; he had all the muscle and 

 preponderance which a broad chest, compact limbs and a just height 

 can promise — but there ended the German. The activity of body, 

 and the lightness of heart, and the open sunny brow, and the intelligent 

 eye, where the whole man nestled — the downright honesty and indepen- 

 dence of this good creature, all proclaimed he was an heir of liberty, 

 and a child of Switzerland ; and yet it is the custom to call these men 

 mercenaries. It is surely an invidious and misapplied designation. 

 Did these men act as mercenaries on the 10th of August 1793? Did they 

 act as mercenaries in April 1815? — and how many other occasions could 

 I enumerate ! But I have already digressed too far. I thought it right, 

 however, you should have some esqidsse of Sebastian. // avait servi, 

 of course, which a huge sabre-cut on his left cheek sufficiently intimated : 

 but he was unlike your Frenchman, who takes care to acquaint you with 

 this important fact in the first three words he utters, accompained with 

 an insolent comment of superiority over every other service in the world ; 

 Sebastian's allusion to his military career was modestly elicited in 

 the detail of some facts upon which I was questioning him. He had 

 risen to be corporal in the young Guard ; but he delicately abstained 

 fi-om good report or evil report of the service, which in all probability 

 he had been compelled to embrace, as a conscript and a foreigner. We 

 were traversing a border country, though perhaps not in the strict geo- 

 graphical sense. However, nature in this instance had perpetuated the 

 extension of the border line beyond the precribed limits of human 

 polity. The wild, uncultivated, lone character of the scenery confirmed 

 her chart. Even the language of these wilds had nothing in common 

 with a national origin ; it was a barbarous melange of the Venetian 

 fatois with low German — the German of poor Sebastian; not one 

 sentence of which could I comprehend. Fortunately for me he spoke 

 Italian well, so that was the medium of our communication. My great 

 object, I should tell you, was to cross the country to Coire, which is the 

 capital of the Grisons. I had formed my arrangements so as to desend 

 into the Grisons by evening, and had marked out the baths of A — u — 

 as my resting-place for the night. Sebastian had some years before 

 traversed this line of country. I could perceive, as we advanced, he 

 was ill at ease. " Ah, Signer," he remarked, " ce I'aria gentile, ce il cielo 

 ci sono le montagne — ma veramente tutto questo non e la Svizzera." In the 

 course of conversation he confirmed what I had before heard of the bad 

 and suspicious character of this district. The relaxation of the system 

 adopted in the French police, and every were exercised when and where 

 the influence of France extended, had produced corresponding bad effects. 

 I mention this now, from a very remarkable circumstance, which has only 

 lately been made public, in regard to the police and the morale of a coun- 

 try, hitherto deemed integral, and unsullied on such points. In the very 

 year of which I am now treating, one of the magistrates of the canton of 

 Lucerne* (it has since been ascertained) was murdered, on his road, 

 home from the capital; and it. is only very recently this fact was detected, 

 and has since been traced to an organized band of ruffians, the centre 

 and nucleus of whose haunts have been tracked to this very district ; 

 and through the inc'dental medium of the recent investigations, 

 they have been completely detected, and I believe are in a course of 

 annihilation. It is a curious, and I may say authentic commentary of 



* See the curious process now under investigation, and lately traiis.'orred to the 

 Canton of Zurich. 



