anion unexpectedly refused to proceed. The guide, the two old
nobles, and at length the whole party, were around them, and no cry or
encouragement of the mountaineers could induce the dogs to quit their
tracks.

"Are we again lost?" asked the Baron de Willading, pressing Adelheid
closer to his beating heart, nearly ready to submit to their common fate
in despair. "Has God at length forsaken us?--my daughter--my beloved
child!"

This touching appeal was answered by a howl from Uberto, who leaped madly
away and disappeared. Nettuno followed, barking wildly and with a deep
throat. Pierre did not hesitate about following, and Sigismund, believing
that the movement of the guide was to arrest the flight of the dogs, was
quickly on his heels. Maso moved with greater deliberation.

"Nettuno is not apt to raise that bark with nothing but hail, and snow,
and wind in his nostrils," said the calculating Italian. "We are either
near another party of travellers, for such are on the mountains as I know"

"God forbid! Art sure of this?" demanded the Signor Grimaldi, observing
that the other had suddenly checked himself.

"Sure that others _were_, Signore," returned the mariner deliberately, as
if he measured well the meaning of each word. "Ah, here comes the trusty
beast, and Pierre, and the Captain, with their tidings, be they good or be
they evil."

The two just named rejoined their friends a Maso ceased speaking. They
hurriedly informed the shivering travellers that the much desired Refuge
was near, and that nothing but the darkness and the driving snow prevented
it from being seen.

"It was a blessed thought, and one that came from St. Augustine himself,
which led the holy monks to raise this shelter!" exclaimed the delighted
Pierre, no longer considering it necessary to conceal the extent of the
danger they had run. "I would not answer even for my own power to reach
the hospice in a time like this. You are of mother church, Signore, being
of Italy?"

"I am one of her unworthy children," returned the Genoese.

"This unmerited favor must have come from the prayers of St. Augustine,
and a vow I made to send a fair offering to our Lady of Einsiedeln; for
never before have I known a dog of St. Bernard lead the traveller to the
Refuge! Their business is to find the frozen, and to guide the traveller
along the paths to the hospice. Even Uberto had his doubts, as you saw,
but the vow prevailed; or, I know not--it might, indeed,