se. Our minds having been made up for
us by our mother, we left the passage and set out. The mountains,
covered with their white mantle, looked very beautiful, but the silence
was awesome in the extreme. Not a sound save the crunching of the snow
under our feet fell upon the ear. All things considered, it was far from
being a joyous procession. The remembrance of what we had before us, and
the recollection of what we had already passed through, weighed upon us
like lead. As a matter of fact, we had not proceeded more than a mile
before I was quite exhausted. Seeing this, the innkeeper waited until I
approached him, then took me up and carried me, sometimes in his arms,
sometimes on his shoulder, for the remainder of the journey.

The sun had fallen and day was drawing to its close when we saw ahead of
us the hut in which we were destined to spend the night. It was a tiny
place, built of wood, and of the roughest possible description. Poor as
it was, however, our hearts were gladdened by the sight of it, and on
its appearance the others unconsciously hastened their steps. With the
approach of night the cold had increased a hundredfold, and a heavy fall
of snow seemed imminent. My mother and her maid could scarcely draw
their feet along, and the remainder of our party were in almost as bad a
case. For my own part, I believe I must have fallen asleep in our
guide's arms, for I have but the faintest recollection of what occurred
during the latter portion of the march. But we reached the hut at last,
and, for the time being at least, were able to consider our troubles at
an end. In such a place we were scarcely likely to be disturbed.
Unfastening the door of the hut, the man threw it open and invited us to
enter.

I am often tempted to wonder whether in the history of the Nineteenth
Century, when it comes to be written, it will be possible to find a
parallel in the record of any single royal family for that strange
evening's lodgings. For my own part, I know that whenever my mother's
description of it occurs to me, I am compelled to a feeling of
wonderment that she should not only be able to recall it with so much
equanimity, but that she should have come through it at all. As I have
said, dusk had fallen before we reached the hut.

As we entered it and closed the door behind us, the wind rose, and a
long gust whistled drearily round the building as if loth to let us
escape so easily. The snow was piled high against the wa