At this instant, when exertion was most needed, and when, apparently, all
were sensible of its importance and most disposed to make it, the muleteer
charged with the duty of urging on the line of beasts deserted his trust,
preferring to take his chance of regaining the village by descending the
mountain, to struggle uselessly, and at a pace so slow, to reach the
convent. The man was a stranger in the country, who had been
adventitiously employed for this expedition, and was unconnected with
Pierre by any of those ties which are the best pledges of unconquerable
faith, when the interests of self press hard upon our weaknesses. The
wearied beasts, no longer driven, and indisposed to toil, first stopped,
then turned aside to avoid the cutting air and the ascent, and were soon
wandering from the path it was so vitally necessary to keep.
As soon as Pierre was informed of the circumstance, he eagerly issued an
order to collect the stragglers without delay, and at every hazard.
Benumbed, bewildered, and unable to see beyond a few yards, this
embarrassing duty was not easily performed.
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