he plain far beneath was flooded with bright
sunshine.

The effect, however, was transitory, for the dark shadow soon engulfed
the distant plain, blurring the fair scene even while we looked upon it.
The change was something marvellous, so sudden and so complete. Up to
this time the air had been still, and very hot; but suddenly a fierce
wind came upon us with a hoarse roar--almost like the waves of the
sea--up the valley and over the hill-top it came, right down upon us,
tearing at the forest-trees. The branches, in all the full foliage of
leafy June, swayed to and fro as the wind went roaring and shrieking
down the hillside; the next moment the earth shook with the clap of a
terrific burst of thunder.

The horses stood still and shuddered in their harness, and it was with
difficulty they were made to go on. It was evident the storm was right
over us, for now succeeded flash upon flash of forked lightning, with
thunder-claps that were instantaneous and unceasing.

At the same time the windows of heaven were opened upon us, or rather
the sluices of heaven it seemed to me; for the rain descended in sheets,
not streams, of water. Without any adventitious difficulties, the road
was as objectionable as a road could be; deep ruts alternated with now a
bare bit of rock strewn with treacherous loose stones, and now a sharp
curve with an ugly slant towards the precipice.

About half an hour after the storm first broke upon us it had become
night, indeed it was so dark that we could hardly see a pace in advance.
The repeated flashes of lightning helped us to make out our position
from time to time, and we trusted to the horses mainly to get us along
in the safe middle course. At moments when the heavens were lit up, I
could see the swaying branches of the fir-trees high above us battling
with the wind, for we were still in the forest. The sound of many waters
around on every side forcibly impressed us with the notion that we must
be washed away--a result not by any means improbable, for the road we
traversed was little better than a watercourse.

I have experienced storms in Norway, and in the Swiss and Austrian Alps,
but I never remember anything to equal this outburst of the elements.

To stop still or to go forward was almost equally difficult, but we
struggled on somehow at the rate, I should think, of a mile and a half
in the hour. The horses were thoroughly demoralised, as one says of
defeated troops, and stumbled re