in his life. To mend the matter, when we came to Pampeluna, it continued
snowing with so much violence, and so long, that the people said winter
was come before its time; and the roads, which were difficult before,
were now quite impassable; for, in a word, the snow lay in some places
too thick for us to travel, and being not hard frozen, as is the case in
the northern countries, there was no going without being in danger of
being buried alive every step. We stayed no less than twenty days at
Pampeluna; when seeing the winter coming on, and no likelihood of its
being better, for it was the severest winter all over Europe that had
been known in the memory of man, I proposed that we should all go away
to Fontarabia, and there take shipping for Bourdeaux, which was a very
little voyage. But while I was considering this, there came in four
French gentlemen, who having been stopped on the French side of the
passes, as we were on the Spanish, had found out a guide, who,
traversing the country near the head of Languedoc, had brought them over
the mountains by such ways, that they were not much incommoded with the
snow; for where they met with snow in any quantity, they said it was
frozen hard enough to bear them and their horses. We sent, for this
guide, who told us he would undertake to carry us the same way with no
hazard from the snow, provided we were armed sufficiently to protect
ourselves from wild beasts; for, he said, upon these great snows it was
frequent for some wolves to show themselves at the foot of the
mountains, being made ravenous for want of food, the ground being
covered with snow. We told him we were well enough prepared for such
creatures as they were, if he would ensure us from a kind of two-legged
wolves, which, we were told, we were in most danger from, especially on
the French side of the mountains. He satisfied us that there was no
danger of that kind in the way that we were to go: so we readily agreed
to follow him, as did also twelve other gentlemen, with their servants,
some French, some Spanish, who, as I said, had attempted to go, and were
obliged to come back again.

Accordingly, we set out from Pampeluna, with our guide, on the 15th of
November; and, indeed, I was surprised, when, instead of going forward,
he came directly back with us on the same road that we came from Madrid,
about twenty miles; when having passed two rivers, and come into the
plain country, we found ourselves in a warm clim