gging of the wheels in the snow, we should have had very good
rest; but the discordant music made by the wheels as they ground the
frozen snow, sounding like innumerable instruments, mostly discordant,
but now and then concordant, prevented our sound sleep.

"The cold we found as severe as any I have usually experienced in
America. The snow is as deep upon the hills, being piled up on each side
of the road five or six feet high. The water in our pitchers froze by the
fireside, and the glass on the windows, even in rooms comfortably warmed,
was encrusted with arborescent frost. The floors, too, of all the rooms
are paved with bricks or tiles, and, although comfortable in summer, are
far from desirable in such a winter.

"At Dijon we stopped over the Sabbath, for the double purpose of avoiding
travelling on that day and from really needing a day of rest. On Sunday
morning we enquired of our landlord, Mons. Ripart, of the Hotel du Parc,
for a Protestant church, and were informed that there was not any in the
place. We learned, however, afterwards that there was one, but too late
to profit by the information. We walked out in the cold to find some
church, and, entering a large, irregular Gothic structure, much out of
repair, we pressed towards the altar where the funeral service of the
Catholic Church was performing over a corpse which lay before it. The
priests, seven or eight in number, were in the midst of their ceremonies.
They had their hair shorn close in front, but left long behind and at the
sides, and powdered, and, while walking, covered partially with a small,
black, pyramidal velvet cap with a tuft at the top. While singing the
service they held long, lighted wax tapers in their hands. There was much
ceremony, but scarcely anything that was imposing; its heartlessness was
so apparent, especially in the conduct of some of the assistants, that it
seemed a solemn mockery. One in particular, who seemed to pride himself
on the manner in which he vociferated 'Amen,' was casting his eyes among
the crowd, winking and laughing at various persons, and, from the
extravagance of his manners, bawling out most irreverently and closing by
laughing, I wondered that he was not perceived and rebuked by the
priests.

"As the procession left the church it was headed by an officer bearing a
pontoon;[1] then one bearing the silver crucifix; then eight or ten boys
with lighted wax tapers by the side of the corpse; then followed the