We perceived the evil of our situation in all its keenness,
but we saw no way out of the difficulty.
In a most remarkable way there dawned upon us a new prospect at the very
moment when we least expected it. We were sitting one day in a tavern
near Wartensee, and talking of our struggles with some strangers
who happened to be there. Three travellers were much interested in
our narrative. They gave themselves out as business people from
Willisau,[135] and soon informed us that they had formed the notion of
trying to get some assistance for us, and our enterprise for their
native town. This they actually did. We received an invitation from
twenty associated well-to-do families in Willisau to remove our
school there, and more fully to work out our plans amongst them. The
association had addressed the cantonal authorities, and a sort of castle
was allotted provisionally to us. About forty pupils from the canton at
once entered the school, and now we seemed at last to have found what we
had so long been seeking. But the priests rose up furiously against us
with a really devilish force. We even went in fear of our lives, and
were often warned by kind-hearted people to turn back, when we were
walking towards secluded spots, or had struck along the outlying paths
amongst the mountains.
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