This indecision, so common in cases of
uncertainty, was the means of exposing Adelheid and her father to all
those fearful risks they had just run.
When the night came on, the people of the town began to understand that
the tempest would be grave for those who were obliged to encounter it,
even in the best bark on the Leman. The darkness added to the danger, for
vessels had often run against the land by miscalculating their distances;
and the lights were shown along the strand, by order of the bailiff, who
manifested an interest so unusual in those on board the Winkelried, as to
draw about them more than the sympathy that would ordinarily be felt for
travellers in distress. Every exertion that the case admitted was made in
their behalf, and, the moment the state of the lake allowed, boats were
sent off, in every probable direction, to their succor. But the Winkelried
was running along the coast of Savoy, ere any ventured forth, and the
search proved fruitless. When the rumor spread, however, that a sail was
to be discerned coming out from under the wide shadow of the opposite
mountains, and that it was steering for La Tour de Peil, a village with a
far safer harbor than that of Vevey, and but an arrow's flight from the
latter town, crowds rushed to the spot.
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