e compass, breathing as it did last night, from a warm quarter, and
will blow as it does this morning, from the opposite extreme.

I had scarcely made myself a cup of coffee, and not yet added the cream,
which encouraged the spoon to stand upright in its thickness, when R----
and P----, tired with their angling, came in. After demolishing nearly a
dozen eggs amongst us, and two capital salmon-trout, which our fast
friend, the Anglo-Norwegian, had filched from a large cistern, where
they are placed during the winter, for the benefit of his master's
table; and after imbibing cauldrons of coffee--so delicious was its
flavour--we showed and expressed great anxiety to pay Bruin the
compliments of the season, and as strangers and Englishmen to testify to
him, as loudly as we could, the repute his fat had obtained in England.

Our cicerone raised no objection; and, turning to one of his countrymen
who had entered the room to gape at us, for I could not then, and I
cannot now conceive the nature of his business, addressed him in his
native language. The man immediately disappeared, and in half an hour
returned with two rifles over each shoulder, and one pistol in his
breeches' pocket. The rifles were larger and heavier than the
fowling-pieces formerly used by our regiments of the line, and the
pistol was of the horse genus, and had a rusty muzzle and a flint lock.
However, we were going to annihilate a ruthless foe; and the clumsiness
of our accoutrements was of little moment. A few good-natured
observations passed between us and the Norseman concerning the
susceptibility and quality of the powder, for its grains were coarser
than those black beads of which ladies in England make their purses. The
said powder for security, was poured into an empty porter-bottle, and
corked down.

We started; but we had barely proceeded three-quarters of a mile before
our little Anglo-Norwegian, who had abided by our good or ill fortune
constantly from the beginning, suddenly remembered that some important
business required his presence in the low lands where dwelt industry
and peace, and accordingly recommending us to the skill of two guides,
shook hands cordially with us, and in a few minutes his ominous face and
oval form were hidden from our sight by the shrubs and stunted firs
which covered the mountain's side.

The waning of his courage did not darken ours; for, like all Englishmen,
we instantly commenced a political discussion, which t