So he travelled onwards, over a grand, lofty chain of mountains, over
rugged,-rocky precipices, and along roads that hung on the mountain’s side
like a swallow’s nest. The waters foamed in the depths below him. The
clouds lay beneath him. He wandered on, treading upon Alpine roses,
thistles, and snow, with the summer sun shining upon him, till at length he
bid farewell to the lands of the north. Then he passed on under the shade of
blooming chestnut-trees, through vineyards, and fields of Indian corn, till
conscious that the mountains were as a wall between him and his early
recollections; and he wished it to be so.
Before him lay a large and splendid city, called Milan, and here he found
a German master who engaged him as a workman. The master and his wife,
in whose workshop he was employed, were an old, pious couple; and the
two old people became quite fond of the quiet journeyman, who spoke but
little, but worked more, and led a pious, Christian life; and even to himself
it seemed as if God had removed the heavy burden from his heart. His
greatest pleasure was to climb, now and then, to the roof of the noble
church, which was built of white marble. The pointed towers, the decorated
and open cloisters, the stately columns, the white statues which smiled upon
him from every corner and porch and arch,-all, even the church itself,
seemed to him to have been formed from the snow of his native land.
Above him was the blue sky; below him, the city and the wide-spreading
plains of Lombardy; and towards the north, the lofty mountains, covered
with perpetual snow. And then he thought of the church of Kjøge, with its
red, ivy-clad walls, but he had no longing to go there; here, beyond the
mountains, he would die and be buried.
Three years had passed away since he left his home; one year of that time
he had dwelt at Milan.
One day his master took him into the town; not to the circus in which
riders performed, but to the opera, a large building, itself a sight well worth
seeing. The seven tiers of boxes, which reached from the ground to a dizzy
height, near the ceiling, were hung with rich, silken curtains; and in them
were seated elegantly-dressed ladies, with bouquets of flowers in their
