uching in a corner of the tent, awaited the cannon-shot that was to
summon us to our delightful _Impressions de Voyage_.

We left in this picturesque and enchanting encampment, the Tartar
soldiers who had escorted us since our departure from Koukou-Noor; they
were no longer able to extend to us their generous protection, for, that
very day, we were about to quit Tartary, and to enter the territory of
Hither Thibet. The Chinese and Tartar soldiers having thus left us, the
embassy had now only to rely upon its own internal resources. As we have
already stated, this great body of 2,000 men was completely armed, and
everyone, with the merest exception, had announced himself prepared to
show himself, upon occasion, a good soldier. But some how or other the
whilome so martial and valorous air of the caravan had become singularly
modified since the passage of the Bourhan-Bota. Nobody sang now, nobody
joked, nobody laughed, nobody pranced about on his horse; everybody was
dull and silent; the moustaches which heretofore had been so fiercely
turned up, were now humbly veiled beneath the lamb-skins with which all
our faces were covered up to the eyes. All our gallant soldiers had made
up their lances, fusils, sabres, bows and arrows, into bundles, which
were packed upon their sumpter animals. For that matter, the fear of
being killed by the brigands scarcely occurred now to any one: the point
was to avoid being killed by the cold.

It was on Mount Chuga that the long train of our real miseries really
began. The snow, the wind, and the cold there set to work upon us, with
a fury which daily increased. The deserts of Thibet are certainly the
most frightful country that it is possible to conceive. The ground
continuing to rise, vegetation diminished as we advanced, and the cold
grew more and more intense. Death now hovered over the unfortunate
caravan. The want of water and of pasturage soon destroyed the strength
of our animals. Each day we had to abandon beasts of burden that could
drag themselves on no further. The turn of the men came somewhat later.
The aspect of the road was of dismal auspice. For several days, we
travelled through what seemed the excavations of a great cemetery. Human
bones, and the carcases of animals presenting themselves at every step,
seemed to warn us that, in this fatal region, amidst this savage nature,
the caravans which had preceded us, had preceded us in death.

To complete our miser