ste. Hadst thou left the town at the hour
named in our conditions, this danger could not have overtaken us."

"Am I a god to command the winds! I would that I had never seen thee or
thy cheeses, or that thou wouldst relieve me of thy presence, and go after
them into the lake."

"This comes of sleeping on duty; nay, I know not but that a proper use of
the oars would still bring us in, in safety, and without necessary harm to
the property of any. Noble Baron de Willading, here may be occasion for
your testimony, and, as a citizen of Berne, I pray you to heed well the
circumstances."

Baptiste was not in a humor to bear these merited reproaches, and he
rejoined upon the aggrieved Nicklaus in a manner that would speedily have
brought their ill-timed wrangle to an issue, had not Maso passed rudely
between them, shoving them asunder with the sinews of a giant. This
repulse served to keep the peace for the moment, but the wordy war
continued with so much acrimony, and with so many unmeasured terms, that
Adelheid and her maids, pale and terror-struck by the surrounding scene as
they were, gladly shut their ears, to exclude epithets of such bitterness
and menace that they curdled the blood. Maso passed on among the workmen,
when he had interposed between the disputants. He gave his orders with
perfect self-possession, though his understanding eye perceived that,
instead of magnifying the danger, he had himself not fully anticipated its
extent. The rolling of the waves was now incessant, and the quick, washing
rush of the water, a sound familiar to the seaman, announced that they
had become so large that their summits broke, sending their lighter foam
ahead. There were symptoms, too, which proved that their situation was
understood by those on the land. Lights were flashing along the strand
near Vevey, and it was not difficult to detect, even at the distance at
which they lay, the evidences of a strong feeling among the people of the
town.

"I doubt not that we have been seen," said Melchior de Willading, "and
that our friends are busy in devising means to aid us. Roger de Blonay is
not a man to see us perish without an effort, nor would the worthy
bailiff, Peter Hofmeister, be idle, knowing that a brother of the
buergerschaft, and old school associate, hath need of his assistance."

"None can come to us, without running an equal risk with ourselves,"
answered the Genoese. "It were better that we should be left to our own
ex