Holy art Thou, our God!
Holy art Thou, our God!
Holy art Thou, our God!
Lord of Sabaoth.”
The air was simple enough, though beautifully harmonized; but there is nothing in the whole compass of music so magnificent as the combination of some hundreds of human voices trained to sing in harmony; the band would have injured the effect, but in truth it was hardly heard, overwhelmed as it was by that volume of sound,—except, indeed, the roll of drums which accompanied the final “Amen,” swelling and prolonging the notes, and then dying away like a receding peal of thunder. The men recovered arms, were dismissed, and in ten minutes were dispersed over the parade ground, playing leap-frog, fencing, wrestling, foot-ball; while not a few were lighting fires, and boiling water for their evening gröd.
Birger stepped on, to see if he could meet with his friend, while the other two, thinking that they should most likely be in the way among people who, if they spoke English or French at all, spoke it with difficulty; turned into the well-beaten track that led to the inn and landing place of Trollhättan.
Before they arrived there the night had already closed in; that is to say, it had faded into twilight, for that is the nearest approach which a northern summer’s night makes to darkness. All that the travellers then saw of the inn was the light which, glancing from every window, beamed forth a welcome which it had evidently been beaming forth to others before them; judging from the din which arose from the evening relaxations of a dozen or so of jolly subalterns. These, who had money enough, or who fancied they had money enough to spend in luxury, had fixed their quarters at the inn, instead of the pretty looking green huts which their less wealthy or more prudent comrades had run up in the camp.
In fact, the sitting rooms of the inn offered at that time fewer temptations than the very clean, bare bed-rooms, with their very white sheets, and very warm down coverlets. Winter and summer alike, the feather bed is uppermost, and here it was still; though the only reason why the windows were not left wide open all night, was the clouds of musquitos which, entering by them, menaced the repose of the sleepers.
Jacob, whom the party had somewhat inconsiderately left in charge of the baggage, had, much to their surprise, deceived them all in making no mistake, and leaving nothing behind; the carioles had been landed, and were ready packed for their journey on the morrow, as duly as if the fishermen had seen to them themselves; but in his own country Jacob had become quite a different character, and piqued himself in showing to the Norwegians in his own person how vast was the superiority of the Swedes.
Birger was not seen again till the party was collected at a sufficiently early hour of the morning round a magnificent breakfast of fruit and fish, which had been laid out under the verandah of the inn,—a narrow esplanade which looked out upon the yet quiet waters of the brimming Gotha, at the very point where they were gathering their strength for their first furious plunge.