re the bodies of people found in the snow who have
never been claimed and are withering away--not laid down, or stretched
out, but standing up, in corners and against walls; some erect and
horribly human, with distinct expressions on the faces; some sunk down
on their knees; some dropping over on one side; some tumbled down
altogether, and presenting a heap of skulls and fibrous dust. There is
no other decay in that atmosphere; and there they remain during the
short days and the long nights, the only human company out of doors,
withering away by grains, and holding ghastly possession of the mountain
where they died.

"It is the most distinct and individual place I have seen, even in this
transcendent country. But, for the Saint Bernard holy fathers and
convent in themselves, I am sorry to say that they are a piece of as
sheer humbug as we ever learnt to believe in, in our young days. Trashy
French sentiment and the dogs (of which, by the bye, there are only
three remaining) have done it all. They are a lazy set of fellows; not
over fond of going out themselves; employing servants to clear the road
(which has not been important or much used as a pass these hundred
years); rich; and driving a good trade in Innkeeping: the convent being
a common tavern in everything but the sign. No charge is made for their
hospitality, to be sure; but you are shown to a box in the chapel, where
everybody puts in more than could, with any show of face, be charged for
the entertainment; and from this the establishment derives a right good
income. As to the self-sacrifice of living up there, they are obliged to
go there young, it is true, to be inured to the climate: but it is an
infinitely more exciting and various life than any other convent can
offer; with constant change and company through the whole summer; with a
hospital for invalids down in the valley, which affords another change;
and with an annual begging-journey to Geneva and this place and all the
places round for one brother or other, which affords farther change. The
brother who carved at our supper could speak some English, and had just
had _Pickwick_ given him!--what a humbug he will think me when he tries
to understand it! If I had had any other book of mine with me, I would
have given it him, that I might have had some chance of being
intelligible. . . ."

FOOTNOTES:

[124] Where he makes remark also on a class of offences which are still
most inadequately punished: "I