Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/127

Rh been the most selfish man in the world, you would not have got off so easily. The former was still more puzzled than you; and the latter would have pocketed nothing by your arrest, the information, and your removal to Verona. This he rapidly considered, and you were already free before our dialogue was ended."

Toward the evening the good man took me into his vineyard, which was very well situated, down along the lake. We were accompanied by his son, a lad of fifteen, who was forced to climb the trees, and pluck me the best fruit, while the old man looked out for the ripest grapes.

While thus placed between these two kind-hearted people, both strange to the world, alone, as it were, in the deep solitude of the earth, I felt in the most lively manner, as I reflected on the day's adventure, what a whimsical being man is; how the very thing, which in company he might enjoy with ease and security, is often rendered troublesome and dangerous, from his notion that he can appropriate to himself the world and its contents after his own peculiar fashion.

Toward midnight my host accompanied me to the bark, carrying the basket of fruit with which Gregorio had presented me, and thus, with a favourable wind, I left the shore, which had promised to become for me a Læstrygonicum shore.

And now for my expedition on the lake. It ended happily, after the noble aspect of the water, and of the adjacent shore of Brescia, had refreshed my very heart. On the western side, where the mountains cease to be perpendicular, and near the lake, the land becomes more flat. Garignano, Bojaco, Cecina, Toscolan, Maderno, Verdom, and Salo stand all in a row, and occupy a reach of about a league and a half; most of them being built in long streets. No words can express the beauty of this richly inhabited spot. At ten o'clock in the morning, I landed at Bartolino, placed my luggage