e the Alps on foot in the middle of December and to walk 24 miles in
snow and ice at one o'clock in the morning, which was the hour at which we
started. I was well clad in flannel and I went thro' the journey valiantly
and in high spirits and without suffering much from the cold till within
five miles of the Hospice, when a heavy snow storm came on; it then began
to look a little ugly and but for Napoleon's grand _chausses_ we were lost.
We struggled on three miles further in the snow before we fell in with a
_maison de refuge_. We knocked there and nobody answered. We then
determined _coute que coute_ to push on to the _Hospice_ which we knew
could not be more than two miles distant; indeed it was much more advisable
so to do than to run the risk of being frozen by remaining two or three
hours in the cold air till the diligence should come up. In standing still
I began to feel the cold bitterly; so in spite of the snow storm, we pushed
on and arrived at the inn at Mont-Cenis at five in the morning. We rubbed
our hands and faces well with snow and took care not to approach the fire
for several minutes, fortifying ourselves in the interim with a glass of
brandy. We then had some coffee made and laid ourselves down to sleep by
the side of an enormous fire until the diligence arrived, which made its
appearance at eight o'clock. The passengers stopped to breakfast and the
Scotchman proposed to me to make the descent of Lans-le-Bourg also on foot;
but I was quite satisfied with the prowess I had already exhibited and
declined the challenge. He however set off alone and thus performed the
entire passage of Mont Cenis on foot. As for the rest of us we were carried
down on a _traineau_; that is to say the diligence was unloaded and its
wheels taken off; the baggage and wheels were put on one _traineau_ and the
diligence with the passengers in it on another, and in this manner we
descended to Lans-le-Bourg. Nothing remarkable occurred on this journey and
we arrived at Chambery in good case. I hired a _caleche_ to go to Geneva,
remained there three days and arrived at Lausanne on the 18th December.

[100] Horace, _Sat_., II, 6, 65.--ED.

[101] Dante, _Inferno_, I, 33,29.--ED.

[102] Henry Augustus, thirteenth Viscount Dillon (1777-1832), married
(1807) to Henrietta Browne (died 1862).--ED.

[103] Quoted from memory, with mistakes. The text has been corrected as it
stands in Brantome, _Les Dames galantes_, ed. Chasles,