being a memoir of Susan Allibone. By
Alfred Lee, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Delaware.

[9] See appendix C, p. 539.

[10] Many years afterward, speaking to a friend of this illness, she
related the following incident. One day she lay, as was supposed,
entirely unconscious and _in articulo mortis_. Repeated but vain
attempts had been made to administer a medicine ordered by the doctor to
be used in case of extremity. Her husband urged one more attempt still;
it might possibly succeed. She heard distinctly every word that was
spoken and instantly reasoned within herself, whether she should consent
or refuse to swallow the medicine. Fancying herself just entering the
eternal city, she longed to refuse but decided it would be wrong and so
consented to come back again to earth.

CHAPTER VI.

IN RETREAT AMONG THE ALPS.

1858-1860.

I.

Life abroad. Letters about the Voyage and the Journey from Havre to
Switzerland. Chateau d'Oex. Letters from there. The Chalet Rosat. The
Free Church of the Canton de Vaud. Pastor Panchaud.

Mrs. Prentiss passed more than two years abroad, mostly in Switzerland.
They were years burdened with heavy cares, with ill-health and keen
solicitude concerning her husband. But they were also years hallowed by
signal mercies of Providence, bright every now and then with floods
of real sunshine, and sweetened by many domestic joys. Although quite
secluded from the world a large portion of the time, her solitude was
cheered by the constant arrival of letters from home. During these years
also she was first initiated into full communion with Nature; and what
exquisite pleasure she tasted in this new experience, her own pen will
tell. Indeed, this period affords little of interest except that which
blossomed out of her domestic life, her friendships, and her love of
nature. She travelled scarcely at all and caught only fugitive glimpses
of society or of the treasures of European art.

A few simple records, therefore, of her retired home-life and of the
impressions made upon her by Alpine scenery, as contained in
her letters, must form the principal part of this chapter. Her
correspondence, while abroad, would make a large volume by itself; in
selecting from it what follows, the aim has been to present, as far
as possible, a continuous picture of her European sojourn, drawn by
herself. Were a faithful picture of its quiet yet varied scenes to be
drawn by another hand, it wo