m into expectation, though they knew that the tramp of
an army would have fallen noiseless on that depth of snow. Then again,
it rose like shrieks and wild calls of distress, and every now and then
would smite the house with a buffet, as though it would level it with the
ground.

The storm lulled at length, as the hours went slowly by. Morning came
and the men prepared to resume their almost hopeless search once more.
They started, about twenty strong, armed with spades and shovels, and
determined first of all to cut their way to Ratlinghope, thinking that
perhaps I had remained there all night. They worked with all their
might, but the snow was deeper than ever, and their progress was
laborious and very slow. Though they had started as soon as it was light
in the morning, they did not reach Ratlinghope till noon, and then their
last hope was dashed to the ground, for they heard that I _had_ started
the previous afternoon, though pressed to remain in the village for the
night. Great was the consternation of the Ratlinghope people when they
heard the news. They knew the hill well, and said with one consent, "If
Mr. Carr was on the Long Mynd last night, he is a dead man." This
conviction too was strengthened by the sad fact, that that very morning
the dead body of a man, whom we all knew well, had been found in the road
frozen to death, not more than one hundred and fifty yards from a small
hamlet in the parish of Ratlinghope, known as "The Bridges." Poor
Easthope, for such was his name, was a journeyman shoemaker by trade. He
owned a few ponies which were on the hill, and he had been looking after
these on the Sunday. I suppose he was much exhausted by this, but he had
safely reached his daughter's house in the evening, which he subsequently
left to go to the place where he worked, no great distance off. He was
found, as I have said, the next morning frozen to death on the turnpike
road. It is conjectured that he either sat down to rest or fell down,
and that he speedily became insensible. I think this fact in itself is
sufficient to prove that, had I given way to the temptation to rest, I
too should have lost my life.

The searching party, reinforced by most of the able-bodied men in
Ratlinghope, beat that part of the hill lying between Ratlinghope and
Wolstaston thoroughly, thinking that I must be somewhere in the tract
between the two places, never supposing that I could have wandered as far
away as I ac