uncertain which way to turn;
now thinking he heard the heavy plash of wheels moving through the snow,
and then discovering it was merely the sound of falling masses, which,
from time to time, slipped from their places, and glided down the steep
mountain sides" What desolate and heart-chilling solitude was there! A
leaden, greyish sky overhead--not a cloud, nor even a passing bird, to
break its dreary surface--beneath, nothing but snow; snow on the wild
fantastic mountain peaks; snow in waving sweeps between them. The rocks,
the fir-trees, all covered.

Fritz stood so long, that already the thin drift settled on his head
and shoulders, and clothed him in the same wintry livery as the objects
around; his limbs were stiff, his fingers knotted and frozen; the little
tears upon his blue cheeks seemed almost to freeze; his heart, that till
now bore bravely up, grew colder and heavier. He felt as if he would
be happy if he could cry, but that even grief was freezing within him.
Despair was near him then! He felt a drowsy confusion creeping over him.
Clouds of white snow-drift seemed to fall so thickly around, that every
object was hidden from view. Crashing branches and roaring torrents
mingled their noises with the thundering plash of falling snow-masses.
Oh! if he could but sleep, and neither hear nor see these wearying
sounds and sights--sleep, and be at rest! It was just at this instant
his eye caught sight of a little finger-post, from which a passing gust
of wind had carried away the snow. It stood at some distance beneath
him, in the midst of a waving field of snow. Had poor Fritz remarked its
leaning attitude, and the depth to which it was covered, scarcely more
than three feet appearing above the surface, he would have known it must
have been carried away from its own appointed spot; but his senses were
not clear enough for such simple reasonings, and with a last effort he
struggled towards it. The snow grew deeper at every step; not only did
it rise above his foot, and half his leg, but it seemed to move in a
great mass all around him, as if a huge fragment of the mountain had
separated, and was floating downwards. The post, too, he came not nearer
to it; it receded as he advanced;--was this a mere delusion? had his
weakened faculties lost all control of sense? Alas! these sensations
were but too real! He had already crossed the parapet which flanked the
road--already was he in the midst of a great "wraith" of fallen