While
the lake was unruffled, a stillness so profound prevailed, that sounds
from the distant port, such as the heavy fall of an oar, or a laugh from
the waterman, had reached the ears of those in the Winkelried, bringing
with them the feeling of security, and the strong charm of a calm at even.
To these succeeded the gathering in the heavens, and the roaring of the
winds, as they came rushing down the sides of the Alps, in their first
descent into the basin of the Leman. As the sight grew useless, except as
it might study the dark omens of the impending vault, the sense of hearing
became doubly acute, and it had been a powerful agent in heightening the
vague but acute apprehensions of the travellers. The rushes of the wind,
which at first were broken, at intervals resembling the roar of a
chimney-top in a gale, had soon reached the fearful grandeur of those
aerial wheelings of squadrons, to which we have more than once alluded,
passing off in dread mutterings, that, in the deep quiet of all other
things, bore a close affinity to the rumbling of a surf upon the
sea-shore.
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