I set out from Fredericstadt about three o'clock in the afternoon, and
expected to reach Stromstad before the night closed in; but the wind
dying away, the weather became so calm that we scarcely made any
perceptible advances towards the opposite coast, though the men were
fatigued with rowing.
Getting amongst the rocks and islands as the moon rose, and the stars
darted forward out of the clear expanse, I forgot that the night stole
on whilst indulging affectionate reveries, the poetical fictions of
sensibility; I was not, therefore, aware of the length of time we had
been toiling to reach Stromstad. And when I began to look around, I did
not perceive anything to indicate that we were in its neighbourhood. So
far from it, that when I inquired of the pilot, who spoke a little
English, I found that he was only accustomed to coast along the
Norwegian shore; and had been only once across to Stromstad. But he had
brought with him a fellow better acquainted, he assured me, with the
rocks by which they were to steer our course, for we had not a compass
on board; yet, as he was half a fool, I had little confidence in his
skill. There was then great reason to fear that we had lost our way, and
were straying amidst a labyrinth of rocks without a clue.
This was something like an adventure, but not of the most agreeable
cast; besides, I was impatient to arrive at Stromstad, to be able to
send forward that night a boy to order horses on the road to be ready,
for I was unwilling to remain there a day without having anything to
detain me from my little girl, and from the letters which I was
impatient to get from you.
I began to expostulate, and even to scold the pilot, for not having
informed me of his ignorance previous to my departure. This made him row
with more force, and we turned round one rock only to see another,
equally destitute of the tokens we were in search of to tell us where we
were. Entering also into creek after creek which promised to be the
entrance of the bay we were seeking, we advanced merely to find
ourselves running aground.
The solitariness of the scene, as we glided under the dark shadows of
the rocks, pleased me for a while; but the fear of passing the whole
night thus wandering to and fro, and losing the next day, roused me. I
begged the pilot to return to one of the largest islands, at the side of
which we had seen a boat moored. As we drew nearer, a light through a
window on the summit became our beacon; but we were farther off than I
supposed.
With some difficulty the pilot got on shore, not distinguishing the
landing-place; and I remained in the boat, knowing that all the relief
we could expect was a man to direct us. After waiting some time, for
there is an insensibility in the very movements of these people that
would weary more than ordinary patience, he brought with him a man who,
assisting them to row, we landed at Stromstad a little after one in the
morning.
It was too late to send off a boy, but I did not go to bed before I had
made the arrangements necessary to enable me to set out as early as
possible.
The sun rose with splendour. My mind was too active to allow me to
loiter long in bed, though the horses did not arrive till between seven
and eight. However, as I wished to let the boy, who went forward to
order the horses, get considerably the start of me, I bridled in my
impatience.
This precaution was unavailing, for after the three first posts I had to
wait two hours, whilst the people at the post-house went, fair and
softly, to the farm, to bid them bring up the horses which were carrying
in the first-fruits of the harvest. I discovered here that these
sluggish peasants had their share of cunning. Though they had made me
pay for a horse, the boy had gone on foot, and only arrived half an hour
before me. This disconcerted the whole arrangement of the day; and being
detained again three hours, I reluctantly determined to sleep at
Quistram, two posts short of Uddervalla, where I had hoped to have
arrived that night.
But when I reached Quistram I found I could not approach the door of the
inn for men, horses, and carts, cows, and pigs huddled together. From
the concourse of people I had met on the road I conjectured that there
was a fair in the neighbourhood; this crowd convinced me that it was but
too true. The boisterous merriment that almost every instant produced a
quarrel, or made me dread one, with the clouds of tobacco, and fumes of
brandy, gave an infernal appearance to the scene. There was everything
to drive me back, nothing to excite sympathy in a rude tumult of the
senses, which I foresaw would end in a gross debauch. What was to be
done? No bed was to be had, or even a quiet corner to retire to for a
moment; all was lost in noise, riot, and confusion.
After some debating they promised me horses, which were to go on to
Uddervalla, two stages. I requested something to eat first, not having
dined; and the hostess, whom I have mentioned to you before as knowing
how to take care of herself, brought me a plate of fish, for which she
charged a rix-dollar and a half. This was making hay whilst the sun
shone. I was glad to get out of the uproar, though not disposed to
travel in an incommodious open carriage all night, had I thought that
there was any chance of getting horses.
Quitting Quistram I met a number of joyous groups, and though the
evening was fresh many were stretched on the grass like weary cattle;
and drunken men had fallen by the road-side. On a rock, under the shade
of lofty trees, a large party of men and women had lighted a fire,
cutting down fuel around to keep it alive all night. They were drinking,
smoking, and laughing with all their might and main. I felt for the
trees whose torn branches strewed the ground. Hapless nymphs! your
haunts, I fear, were polluted by many an unhallowed flame, the casual
burst of the moment!
The horses went on very well; but when we drew near the post-house the
postillion stopped short and neither threats nor promises could prevail
on him to go forward. He even began to howl and weep when I insisted on
his keeping his word. Nothing, indeed, can equal the stupid obstinacy of
some of these half-alive beings, who seem to have been made by
Prometheus when the fire he stole from Heaven was so exhausted that he
could only spare a spark to give life, not animation, to the inert clay.
It was some time before we could rouse anybody; and, as I expected,
horses, we were told, could not be had in less than four or five hours.
I again attempted to bribe the churlish brute who brought us there, but
I discovered that, in spite of the courteous hostess's promises, he had
received orders not to go any father.
As there was no remedy I entered, and was almost driven back by the
stench--a softer phrase would not have conveyed an idea of the hot
vapour that issued from an apartment in which some eight or ten people
were sleeping, not to reckon the cats and dogs stretched on the floor.
Two or three of the men or women were on the benches, others on old
chests; and one figure started half out of a trunk to look at me, whom
might have taken for a ghost, had the chemise been white, to contrast
with the sallow visage. But the costume of apparitions not being
preserved I passed, nothing dreading, excepting the effluvia, warily
amongst the pots, pans, milk-pails, and washing-tubs. After scaling a
ruinous staircase I was shown a bed-chamber. The bed did not invite me
to enter; opening, therefore, the window, and taking some clean towels
out of my night-sack, I spread them over the coverlid, on which tired
Nature found repose, in spite of the previous disgust.
With the grey of the morn the birds awoke me; and descending to inquire
for the horses, I hastened through the apartment I have already
described, not wishing to associate the idea of a pigstye with that of a
human dwelling.
I do not now wonder that the girls lose their fine complexions at such
an early age, or that love here is merely an appetite to fulfil the main
design of Nature, never enlivened by either affection or sentiment.
For a few posts we found the horses waiting; but afterwards I was
retarded, as before, by the peasants, who, taking advantage of my
ignorance of the language, made me pay for the fourth horse that ought
to have gone forward to have the others in readiness, though it had
never been sent. I was particularly impatient at the last post, as I
longed to assure myself that my child was well.
My impatience, however, did not prevent my enjoying the journey. I had
six weeks before passed over the same ground; still it had sufficient
novelty to attract my attention, and beguile, if not banish, the sorrow
that had taken up its abode in my heart. How interesting are the varied
beauties of Nature, and what peculiar charms characterise each season!
The purple hue which the heath now assumed gave it a degree of richness
that almost exceeded the lustre of the young green of spring, and
harmonised exquisitely with the rays of the ripening corn. The weather
was uninterruptedly fine, and the people busy in the fields cutting down
the corn, or binding up the sheaves, continually varied the prospect.
The rocks, it is true, were unusually rugged and dreary; yet as the road
runs for a considerable way by the side of a fine river, with extended
pastures on the other side, the image of sterility was not the
predominant object, though the cottages looked still more miserable,
after having seen the Norwegian farms. The trees likewise appeared of me
growth of yesterday, compared with those Nestors of the forest I have
frequently mentioned. The women and children were cutting off branches
from the beech, birch, oak, &c., and leaving them to dry. This way of
helping out their fodder injures the trees. But the winters are so long
that the poor cannot afford to lay in a sufficient stock of hay. By
such means they just keep life in the poor cows, for little milk can be
expected when they are so miserably fed.
It was Saturday, and the evening was uncommonly serene. In the villages
I everywhere saw preparations for Sunday; and I passed by a little car
loaded with rye, that presented, for the pencil and heart, the sweetest
picture of a harvest home I had ever beheld. A little girl was mounted
a-straddle on a shaggy horse, brandishing a stick over its head; the
father was walking at the side of the car with a child in his arms, who
must have come to meet him with tottering steps; the little creature was
stretching out its arms to cling round his neck; and a boy, just above
petticoats, was labouring hard with a fork behind to keep the sheaves
from falling.
My eyes followed them to the cottage, and an involuntary sigh whispered
to my heart that I envied the mother, much as I dislike cooking, who was
preparing their pottage. I was returning to my babe, who may never
experience a father's care or tenderness. The bosom that nurtured her
heaved with a pang at the thought which only an unhappy mother could
feel.
Adieu!