Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/77

Rh family groups for dinner. This partaking of the contents of the various provision baskets, was a time of joyous conversation. Such as had not brought victuals with them, were invited to partake with those who had abundance. Nobody was overlooked or uncared for; all were regarded as guests by a good housewife.

During the dinner, it was communicated from group to group, that a celebrated spiritual preacher from Geneva had arrived quite unexpectedly at the meeting. During the singing of one of the hymns in the forenoon service, I had heard a voice at a distance exclaim, “Look! there is the assembly!”—“Voila la réunion!” And soon after, the congregation was increased by the arrival of a great number of strangers, to whom, at the time, but little attention was paid. Soon after the close of the simple meal, divine service again commenced. When the first hymn had been sung, I heard a voice, the energy of which greatly struck me. Under the aged pine trees, upon an elevation of the field, stood a tall, broad-shouldered man, whose whole exterior was remarkable. The forehead, beneath which a pair of deep-set eyes flashed lightning, the nose, the jaw, the whole features, stood forth powerful and irregular as the block of an Alp; whilst a tempest seemed to have passed through his wild, bushy hair. John the Baptist might have appeared such as he. It was the celebrated preacher from Geneva,—M. Berthollet. From the moment that he first rose, he ruled the assembly, and the assembly acknowledged in him its centre.