It
immediately was scenting and whining among the frozen travellers. The
exclamations of joy and surprise were scarcely uttered before Sigismund,
accompanied by another, joined the party.
"Honor and thanks to the good Augustines!" cried the delighted guide;
"this is the third good office of the kind, for which I am their debtor!"
"I would it were true, honest Pierre," answered the stranger. "But Maso
and Nettuno are poor substitutes, in a tempest like this, for the servants
and beasts of St. Bernard. I am a wanderer, and lost like yourselves, and
my presence brings little other relief than that which is known to be the
fruit of companionship in misery. The saints have brought me a second time
into your company when matters were hanging between life and death!"
Maso made this last remark when, by drawing nearer the group, he had been
able to ascertain, by the remains of the light, of whom the party was
composed.
"If it is to be as useful now as thou hast already been," answered the
Genoese, "it will be happier for us all, thyself included: bethink thee
quickly of thy expedients, and I will make thee an equal sharer of all
that a generous Providence hath bestowed.
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