he dread that had been
collecting in his bosom for the last interminable and weary hour.
Sigismund, as well as most of the men of the party, had dismounted a
little previously, with a view to excite warmth by exercise. The youth had
often traversed the mountains, and the cry no sooner reached his ear, than
he was at the side of him who uttered it.

"At what distance, are we still from the convent?" he demanded eagerly.

"There is more than a league of steep and stone path to mount, Monsieur le
Capitaine;" returned the disconsolate Pierre, in a tone that perhaps said
more than his words.

"This is not a moment for indecision. Remember that thou art not the
leader of a party of carriers with their beasts of burthen, but that there
are those with us, who are unused to exposure, and are feeble of body.
What is the distance from the last hamlet we passed?"

"Double that to the convent!"

Sigismund turned, and with the eye he made a silent appeal to the two old
nobles, as if to ask for advice or orders.

"It might indeed be better to return," observed the Signore Grimaldi, in
the way one utters a half-formed resolution. "This wind is getting to be
piercingly cutting, and the night is hard upon us. What thinkest thou,
Melchior; for, with Monsieur Sigismund, I am of opinion that there is
little time to lose."

"Signore, your pardon," hastily interrupted the guide. "I would not
undertake to cross the plain of the Velan an hour later, for all the
treasures of Einsideln and Loretto! The wind will have an infernal sweep
in that basin, which will soon be boiling like a pot, while here we shall
get, from time to time, the shelter of the rocks. The slightest mishap on
the open ground might lead us astray a league or more, and it would need
an hour to regain the course. The beasts too mount faster than they
descend, and with far more surety in the dark; and even when at the
village there is nothing fit for nobles, while the brave monks have all
that a king can need."

"Those who escape from these wild rocks need not be critical about their
fare, honest Pierre, when fairly housed. Wilt thou answer for our arrival
at the convent unharmed, and in reasonable time?"

"Signore, we are in the hands of God. The pious Augustines, I make no
doubt, are praying for all who are on the mountain at this moment; but
there is not a minute to lose. I ask no more than that none lose sight of
their companions, and that each exert his force to th