the two men to strain at.

"She is inspired," they said to one another.

"By the Almighty's mercy!" she exclaimed. "You both know that I am by
far the lightest here. Give me the brandy and the wine, and lower me
down to him. Then go for assistance and a stronger rope. You see that
when it is lowered to me--look at this about me now--I can make it fast
and safe to his body. Alive or dead, I will bring him up, or die with
him. I love him passionately. Can I say more?"

They turned to her companion, but he was lying senseless on the snow.

"Lower me down to him," she said, taking two little kegs they had
brought, and hanging them about her, "or I will dash myself to pieces! I
am a peasant, and I know no giddiness or fear; and this is nothing to me,
and I passionately love him. Lower me down!"

"Ma'amselle, ma'amselle, he must be dying or dead."

"Dying or dead, my husband's head shall lie upon my breast, or I will
dash myself to pieces."

They yielded, overborne. With such precautions as their skill and the
circumstances admitted, they let her slip from the summit, guiding
herself down the precipitous icy wall with her hand, and they lowered
down, and lowered down, and lowered down, until the cry came up:
"Enough!"

"Is it really he, and is he dead?" they called down, looking over.

The cry came up: "He is insensible; but his heart beats. It beats
against mine."

"How does he lie?"

The cry came up: "Upon a ledge of ice. It has thawed beneath him, and it
will thaw beneath me. Hasten. If we die, I am content."

One of the two men hurried off with the dogs at such topmost speed as he
could make; the other set up the lighted torches in the snow, and applied
himself to recovering the Englishman. Much snow-chafing and some brandy
got him on his legs, but delirious and quite unconscious where he was.

The watch remained upon the brink, and his cry went down continually:
"Courage! They will soon be here. How goes it?" And the cry came up:
"His heart still beats against mine. I warm him in my arms. I have cast
off the rope, for the ice melts under us, and the rope would separate me
from him; but I am not afraid."

The moon went down behind the mountain tops, and all the abyss lay in
darkness. The cry went down: "How goes it?" The cry came up: "We are
sinking lower, but his heart still beats against mine."

At length the eager barking of the dogs, and a flare of light upon the
snow, proclaim