ndoors, we were approaching our last
mouthful very rapidly, the tea at breakfast was merely coloured hot
water, and we had some picnic biscuits with it. For dinner we had the
last tin of sardines, the last pot of apricot jam, and a tin of ratifia
biscuits a most extraordinary mixture, I admit, but there was nothing
else. There were six people to be fed every day, and nothing to feed
them with. Thursday's breakfast was a discovered crust of dry bread,
very stale, and our dinner that day was rice and salt--the last rice in
the store-room. The snow still never ceased falling, and only one window
in the house afforded us any light; every box was broken up and used for
fuel. The gentlemen used to go all together and cut, or rather dig, a
passage through the huge drift in front of the stable, and with much
difficulty get some food for the seven starving horses outside, who were
keeping a few yards clear by incessantly moving about, the snow making
high walls all around them.

It was wonderful to see how completely the whole aspect of the
surrounding scenery was changed; the gullies were all filled up, and
nearly level with the downs; sharp-pointed cliffs were now round bluffs;
there was no vestige of a fence or gate or shrub to be seen, and still
the snow came down as if it had only just begun to fall; out of doors
the silence was like death, I was told, for I could only peep down the
tunnel dug every few hours at the back-kitchen door. My two maids
now gave way, and sat clasped in each other's arms all day, crying
piteously, and bewailing their fate, asking me whenever I came into
the kitchen, which was about every half-hour, for there was no fire
elsewhere, "And oh, when do you think we'll be found, mum?" Of course
this only referred to the ultimate discovery of our bodies. There was a
great search to-day for the cows, but it was useless, the gentlemen
sank up to their shoulders in snow. Friday, the same state of things: a
little flour had been discovered in a discarded flour-bag, and we had
a sort of girdle-cake and water. The only thing remaining in the
store-room was some blacklead, and I was considering seriously how that
could be cooked, or whether it would be better raw: we were all more
than half starved, and quite frozen: very little fire in the kitchen,
and none in any other room. Of course, the constant thought was, "Where
are the sheep?" Not a sign or sound could be heard. The dogs' kennels
were covered several f