protection of its walls to those who
sought its cover. But shelter on such a night was everything, and this it
effectually afforded. The place had only one outlet, being simply formed
of four walls and the roof; but it was sufficiently large to shelter a
party twice as numerous as that which had now reached it.

The transition from the biting cold and piercing winds of the mountain to
the shelter of this inartificial building, was so great as to produce
something like a general sensation of warmth. The advantage gained in this
change of feeling was judiciously improved by the application of friction
and of restoratives under the direction of Pierre. Uberto carried a small
supply of the latter attached to his collar, and before half an hour had
passed Adelheid and Christine were sleeping sweetly, side by side, muffled
in plenty of the spare garments, and pillowed on the saddles and housings
of the mules. The brutes were brought within the Refuge and as no party
mounted the St Bernard without carrying the provender necessary for its
beasts of burthen, that sterile region affording none of its own, the very
fuel being transported leagues on the backs of mules, the patient and
hardy animals, too, found their solace, after the fatigues and exposure of
the day. The presence of so many living bodies in lodgings so confined
aided in producing warmth, and, after all had eaten of the scanty fare
furnished by the foresight of the guide, drowsiness came over the whole
party.

Chapter XXIV.

Side by side,
Within they lie, a mournful company.

Rogers.

The sleep of the weary is sweet. In after-life, Adelheid, when dwelling in
a palace, reposing on down, and canopied by the rich stuffs of a more
generous climate, was often heard to say that she had never taken rest
grateful as that she found in the Refuge of St. Bernard. So easy, natural,
and refreshing, had been her slumbers, unalloyed even by those dreams of
precipices and avalanches which, long afterwards, haunted her slumbers,
that she was the first to open her eyes on the following morning, awaking
like an infant that had enjoyed a quiet and healthful repose. Her
movements aroused Christine. They threw aside the cloaks and coats that
covered them, and sat gazing about the place in the confusion that the
novelty of their situation would be likely to produce. All the rest of the
travellers still slumbered; and, arising without noise, they pas