s them to the storm;

[Page Head: THE MONT CENIS]

In another place there was a cluster of houses and a church newly
built. Not far from Lans-le-Bourg (at the foot of Mont Cenis) is
a very strong fort, built by the King of Sardinia, which commands
the road. It has a fine effect perched upon a rock, and
apparently unapproachable. A soldier was pacing the battlement,
and his figure gave life to the scene and exhibited the immensity
of the surrounding objects, so minute did he appear. At
Lans-le-Bourg they put four horses and two mules to my carriage,
but I took my courier's horse and set off to ride up the mountain
with a guide who would insist upon going with me, and who
proposed to take me up a much shorter way by the old road, which,
however, I declined; he was on foot, and made a short cut up the
hill while I rode by the road, which winds in several turns up
the mountain. Fired with mountainous zeal, I had a mind to try
one of these short cuts, and giving my horse to Paolo (my _valet
de chambre_) set off with my guide to climb the next intervening
ascent; but I soon found that I had better have stuck to my
horse, for the immensity of the surrounding objects had deceived
me as to the distance, and the ground was so steep and slippery
that, unprepared as I was for such an attempt, I could not keep
my footing. When about half-way up, I looked ruefully round and
saw steeps above and below covered with ice and snow and loose
earth. I could not get back, and did not know how to get on. I
felt like the man who went up in a balloon, and when a mile in
the air wanted to be let out. My feelings were very like what
Johnson describes at Hawkestone in his tour in Wales. 'He that
mounts the precipices at ---- wonders how he came thither, and
doubts how he shall return; his walk is an adventure and his
departure an escape. He has not the tranquillity but the horrors
of solitude--a kind of turbulent pleasure between fright and
admiration.' My guide, fortunately, was active and strong, and
properly shod so he went first, making steps for me in the snow,
into which I put my feet after his, while with one hand I grasped
the tail of his blue frock and with the other seized bits of twig
or anything I could lay hold of; and in this ludicrous way,
scrambling and clambering, hot and out of breath, to my great joy
I at last got to the road, and for the rest of the ascent
contented myself with my post-horse, who had a set of bells
jinglin