XX
The inn was, indeed, badly kept, but delightfully situated, at the base of the mountains and close to the margin of another lake, which the setting sun transformed into a basin of gold.
When our rooms had been given us and supper ordered, Wagner proposed that we should go by boat to the place where a stream gushes out from the rock, and is supposed to possess all sorts of virtues, among others that of granting forgetfulness to whomsoever shall drink of its waters.
The inn-keeper himself rigged up his boat for us, and offered to take us there. With one shove of his boat-hook he launched it upon the luminous surface, which shivered and darkened into blue shadows.
Wagner began to sing, since we were now in the land of William Tell,
"Accours dans ma nacelle,
Timide jouvencelle...."
But we responded with themes from The Flying Dutchman, and after that, Lohengrin. Then the Master joined in, and started the song of the Ship-boy from Tristan. All the motifs of the first and third Acts which have to do with a ship were passed in review; The Rhinegold also had its turn, and at last Wagner cried:
"We have exhausted all my aquatic music!"
The mountains made an almost sheer descent to the lake. We reached the spring that spouts from the rock. Madam Cosima wished to taste this water, but I declared that I would not drink, lest I should lose the memory of the wonderful journey.
The twilight lowered; gradually everything was obscured, and we sailed under the deepening shadows. Wagner thought it would be more prudent not to leave the boat, but to return to the inn, where supper awaited us.