The wearied beasts manifested less zeal than the
guide, and they who rode them were beginning to murmur at the
unreasonableness of the rate at which they were compelled to proceed on
the narrow, uneven, stony path, where footing for the animals was not
always obtained with the necessary quickness, when a gloom deeper that
cast by the shadows of the rocks fell upon their track, and the air filled
with snow, as suddenly as if all its particles had been formed and
condensed by the application of some prompt chemical process.
The change was so unexpected, and yet so complete, that the whole party
checked their mules, and sat looking up at the millions of flakes that
were descending on their heads, with more wonder and admiration than fear.
A shout from Pierre first aroused them from this trance, and recalled them
to a sense of the real state of things. He was standing on a knoll,
already separated from the party by some fifty yards, white with snow, and
gesticulating violently for the travellers to come on.
"For the sake of the Blessed Maria! quicken the beasts," he cried; for
Pierre, like most who dwell in Valais, was a Catholic, and one accustomed
to bethink him most of his heavenly mediator when most oppressed with
present dangers; "quicken their speed, if ye value your lives! This is no
moment to gaze at the mountains, which are well enough in their way, and
no doubt both the finest and largest known," (no Swiss ever seriously
vituperates or loses his profound veneration for his beloved nature,) "but
which had better be the humblest plain on earth for our occasions than
what they truly are.
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