sardines last, which he
obligingly did.

We ran most of the way back to the side of the hill where the snow had
been cut. The exercise made us a little warmer; and the genial influence
of the cold fowl, the hard-boiled eggs, the sardines and the thin red
wine beginning to work, we were able to enjoy the spectacle of the
Patriarch leading the first party down the perilous incline. We had
ropes, but didn't think it worth while to be tied. The party was divided
into two sections, half a dozen holding on to a rope. It must have been
a beautiful sight from many a near mountain height to watch the
Patriarch's chimney-pot hat slowly move downwards on the zigzag path.

"What's that Virgil says about ranging mountain tops?" said the Chancery
Barrister:

"Me Parnassi deserta per ardua dulcis
Raptat amor: juvat ire jugis, qua nulla priorum
Castaliam molli divertitur orbita clivo."

He had got in the centre of the second party, and with two before him,
three behind, and a firm grip on the rope, he thought it safe to quote
poetry.

We had eight days at Les Avants, of which this devoted to the ascent of
the Roches was the only one the sun did not shine upon. Whether on
mountain or in valley, what time the sun was shining it was delightfully
warm. The narcissi were not yet out, but the fields were thick with
their buds. How the place would look when their glory had burst forth on
all the green Alps we could only imagine. But already everywhere bloomed
the abundant marigolds, the hepaticae, the violets, the oxlips, the
gentians, the primroses, and the forget-me-nots.

CHAPTER XII.

THE BATTLE OF MERTHYR.

"Well, sir, it is, as you say, a long time ago, but it was one of those
things, look you, that a man meets with only once in his lifetime; and
that being so, I might call it all to mind if I began slowly, and went
on so as to keep my pipe alight to the end."

The speaker was a little, white-haired miner, who had been employed for
fifty years by the Crawshays, of Cyfarthfa. We were sitting in the
sanctum of his kitchen, the beautifully sanded floor of which smote me
with remorse, for I had walked up from Merthyr, and was painfully
conscious of two muddy footprints in the doorway.

Mrs. Morgan Griffiths, engaged upon the task of repairing Mr. Morgan
Griffiths's hose, was seated in the middle of the room opposite the
fireplace, having against the wall on either side of her a mahogany
chest of drawers in resplenden