pocket: with this he first cut himself free from the ice around him, and then, step by step, cut his way upward, and was thus wonderfully and mercifully preserved. He was above two hours in cutting out his way from certain death to life and safety. Arrived on the surface, he saw a gentleman wandering about, crying, on the ice. He went up to him, and asked what was the matter; the gentleman replied in the most agitated manner, "What shall I do - I have lost my guide?" "No," replied Michel, "bless God, I am your guide!" The French gentleman, in the distress of the moment, and from the circumstance of poor Michel's face being bruised and bloody, did not immediately recognise him. "It is happy for you, sir," added he, "that I am saved, or you must have been lost also, for you could never find your way off the Mer de Glace without a guide." "I had indeed given myself up for lost," said the French gentleman, "when I saw my guide disappear among the ice; I called out at the instant, but no human aid was near." An account of this most providential escape was given in some of the continental papers soon after it happened. The poor guide expressed himself most gratefully sensible of God's mercy to him in the preservation of his life. He was ill for six weeks after, in consequence of the wounds, bruises, and sufferings he had undergone. The knife, which, under Providence, did him such good service, is still most carefully preserved by his wife and children. I asked if any account of his danger and deliverance had ever been published in England: he said that he saw many English, but he had never heard of any such publication. He told me also many interesting anecdotes of the travellers who had made the ascent of Mont Blanc, and related to me the sad circumstance of the three guides being lost at once by an avalanche, whilst making the ascent with one of those adventurers. It requires three days, and nearly twenty persons in attendance as guides and helpers, to get to the summit of Mont Blanc; nor can it ever be done without the greatest risk to the lives of all concerned in the attempt. "Yet," said I, we have heard a lady has been up." He replied, 66 "Oh yes," and shrugged up his shoulders; "but it was a thing not fit for any woman to attempt: she who did so was a French woman, Mademoiselle Henriette D'Angeville: she was not young, but had a courage like a man, and was very adventurous, yet she was obliged to be carried up by the guides during the greater part of the way." On returning to the hospice of the Montanvert, I was so convinced that to descend on my mule would be so much worse than it had been to come up, that I made up my mind to keep the Alpine stock with which I had been supplied, and to walk down the mountain. My nephew communicated my determination to the guide, who at once pronounced it to be impossible; he said I could not walk down the Montanvert. I was, however, resolved to try; so giving my nephew full permission, if he chose to do so, to ride down on my mule, Alpine stock in hand, and attended by the guide, off I set in good spirits for the attempt. My nephew mounted, to our no small amusement, on my side saddle, but soon found it so uneasy a seat, that he got off and resolved to walk down. Mr. Bray, not liking to leave me, determined to join the walking party, so off he got likewise; and no sooner had he done so, than his mule, rejoiced, I conclude, to be rid of his weight, kicked up its heels in the air in a most frolicsome manner: we left the mules to the conduct of the little Savoyard, bade adieu to our English travellers, who were about to descend as they had come up, and off we went down the mountain. After a long and most fatiguing descent, as we drew near the end of it, it came on to rain most violently. I had nothing over my shoulders but a common shawl, and was soon wet through. To add to our mishaps, my husband, not minding my instructions, but carelessly using his Alpine stock, more as a gentleman flourishes a cane than as a prop of safety, slipped, and had a fall so severe, in so steep a place, and among such loose rocks and stones, that it was next to a miracle that he did not break his limbs. This dreadfully frightened me at the moment to this day he feels, occasionally, the effects of his fall. We assisted him up; and VOL. II. after a little pause he was enabled, though not without great pain, to proceed. At one of the cottages, near the base of the Montanvert, we borrowed an umbrella; and on we paced through the drenching rain, which never ceased till we reached our inn at Chamouny, at about ten o'clock that night. We were glad to be rid of our wet clothes; and, notwithstanding all our late disasters, we supped together in high spirits, greatly delighted with all we had seen in our excursion; nor did we feel so fatigued as we expected we should do, after so much exertion. I have now only to add that I am, My dear Brother, Always your affectionate Sister, END OF THE SECOND VOLUME. LONDON: Printed by A. SPOTTISWOODE, |