nd this circumstance
greatly contributed to our success.

"The image of the Infinite presented itself to my mind in all its
formidable grandeur. My heart, oppressed, felt its influence, as my gaze
rested upon the Swiss plain half hidden in the mists of the surrounding
mountains, which were bathed in golden vapours. I was filled with such a
sense of God that my heart--so it seemed to me--was not large enough to
contain it. I belonged wholly to Him. From that moment my soul was lost
in the thought of His incomprehensible power.

"But the time had come for our departure, and I must take leave of the
mountain where I was so far from men! I embraced the flag, and at three
o'clock we began our homeward march. With much toil and trouble we
descended the declivities of the Moench. We were obliged to lend each
other more assistance than in ascending, and more than once we nearly
fell into the abysses. But as soon as we regained the Eiger, we swept
forward as rapidly as the avalanche which knows no obstacles, as the
torrent which carves out its own channel, as the bird which on mighty
pinions cleaves space. Seated on the snow, we allowed ourselves to slide
easily down those steeps which we had so painfully climbed, even to the
very brink of the precipices, which we had crossed on a ladder instead
of bridge. We observed that the gulfs yawned wide which in the morning
we had crossed upon the snow that covered them; for the aspect of these
mountains changes with a truly extraordinary rapidity. Song and laughter
soon broke forth again, provoked by our strange fashion of travelling.
Great was our joy when we found ourselves once more in an atmosphere
favourable to the life of vegetation, and all of us rushed headlong to
the first brook, whose murmur sounded as sweet to us as the voice of a
friend.

"But as soon as we reached the rocks free from snow, our troubles
recommenced; difficulties reappeared, and were even more serious than
those we had met with in our ascent. The peril was extreme; and but for
the courageous Pierre Bohren, who carried me rather than supported me, I
could never have descended the bare rocks that skirt the edge of the
glacier. When we struck the Mer de Glace, we fell in with so many gaping
fissures that we could cross them only by hazardous leaps and bounds. We
had not reached the other side before we were met by our porters with
the sedan-chair; and we arrived singing and cheering at Grindelwald,
where ever