News did not travel along the upper Rhine fast in those days and the peasantry did not know of his trip.

His unexpected and strange appearance caused no little fright among the people along the banks.

At one point he came on three workmen, engaged in mending an embankment.

While approaching them on the swift current, he raised himself up in the water and blew a blast on his horn.

The workmen looked around and seeing a strange figure standing in the water blowing a trumpet, perhaps thought it was old Father Rhine.