Page:Selected letters of Mendelssohn 1894.djvu/85

Rh. Evening of the 9th.—My joke is turned to bitter earnest as may easily happen nowadays. The frightful weather has done great damage, and the country is half devastated. The people cannot remember such a furious storm and rain for many years. And all that happens with such incredible rapidity! Early this morning it was only uncomfortable bad weather, and this afternoon all the bridges are swept away, the routes blocked for the time. Landslips are happening on the Lake of Brientz, everything is upside down. And now I hear that war is declared in Europe as well, so things are going wildly in the world, and one may be glad to have a warm room and a decent roof over one’s head for the moment, as I have here. The rain ceased for a while this morning, and I thought the clouds had drained themselves out. So I started from Wyler, and soon found the road pretty well destroyed; the weather played me a trick as well. The rain began again softly, then about nine dashed down with such fury that one saw something uncommon was going on. I crept into a half-built hut where there was a great bundle of hay, and made a bed for myself in the sweet smelling stuff. A soldier of the canton going to Thun, crept in from the opposite side as well. After an hour, as things got no better, we went on, each in his own direction. At Leisingen I had to get under a roof again and wait a long time, but as my things were at Interlaken, only two hours off, I