Volume Ii Part 21 (1/2)
I was glad enough when the old building came in view, though the road lay up an ascent of snow almost perpendicular.
At the foot of this ascent we paused. Our guides, who looked a little puzzled, held a few moments' conversation, in which the word ”_fonce_” was particularly prominent, a word which I took to be equivalent to our English ”_slump;_” and indeed the place was suggestive of the idea. The snow had so far melted and softened under the influence of the July sun, that something of this kind, in going up the ascent, seemed exceedingly probable. The man stood leaning on his alpenstock, looking at the thing to be demonstrated. There were two paths, both equally steep and snowy. At last he gathered up the bridle, and started up the most direct way. The mule did not like it at all, evidently, and expressed his disgust by occasionally stopping short and snuffing, meaning probably to intimate that he considered the whole thing a humbug, and that in his opinion we should all slump through together, and go to--n.o.body knows where. At last, when we were almost up the ascent, he did slump, and went up to his breast in the snow; whereat the guide pulled me out of the saddle with one hand, and pulled him out of the hole with the other. In a minute he had me into the saddle again, and after a few moments more we were up the ascent and drawing near the _hospice_--a great, square, strong, stone building, standing alone among rocks and s...o...b..nks.
As we drove up nearer I saw the little porch in front of it crowded with gentlemen smoking cigars, and gazing on our approach just as any set of loafers do from the porch of a fas.h.i.+onable hotel. This was quite a new idea of the matter to me. We had been flattering ourselves on performing an incredible adventure; and lo, and behold, all the world were there waiting for us.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _of a large multi-story hospice and other buildings in a remote-looking mountain valley. A river flows in the foreground._]
We came up to the steps, and I was so crippled with fatigue and so dizzy and sick with the thin air, that I hardly knew what I was doing.
We entered a low-browed, dark, arched, stone pa.s.sage, smelling dismally of antiquity and dogs, when a brisk voice accosted me in the very choicest of French, and in terms of welcome as gay and courtly as if we were entering a _salon_.
Keys clashed, and we went up stone staircases, our entertainer talking volubly all the way. As for me, all the French I ever knew was buried under an avalanche. C. had to make answer for me, that madame was very unwell, which brought forth another stream of condolence as we came into a supper room, lighted by a wood fire at one end. The long table was stretched out, on which they were placing supper. Here I had light enough to perceive that our entertainer was a young man of a lively, intelligent countenance, in the Augustine monks' dress, viz., a long, black camlet frock, with a kind of white band over it, which looks much like a pair of suspenders worn on the outside. He spoke French very purely, and had all that warm cordiality and graceful vivacity of manner which seems to be peculiar to the French. He appeared to pity us very much, and was full of offers of a.s.sistance; and when he heard that I had a bad headache, insisted on having some tea made for me, the only drink on the table being wine The supper consisted of codfish, stewed apples, bread, filberts, and raisins. Immediately after we were shown up stone staircases, and along stone pa.s.sages, to our rooms, of which the most inviting feature was two high, single beds covered with white spreads. The windows of the rooms were so narrow as to seem only like loopholes. There was a looking gla.s.s, table, chair, and some glazed prints.
A good old woman came to see if we wanted any thing. I thought, as I stretched myself in the bed, with feathers under me and feathers over me, what a heaven of rest this place must have seemed to poor travellers benighted and peris.h.i.+ng in the snow. In the morning I looked out of my loophole on the tall, grim rocks, and a small lake frozen and covered with snow. ”Is this lake always frozen?” said I to the old serving woman who had come to bring us hot water for was.h.i.+ng.
”Sometimes,” says she, ”about the latter part of August, it is thawed.”
I suppose it thaws the last of August, and freezes the first of September.
After dressing ourselves we crept down stairs in hopes of finding the fire which we left the night before in the sitting room. No such thing. The sun was s.h.i.+ning, and it was what was called a warm day, that is to say, a day when a little thaw trickles down the south side of snow banks; so the fire was out, and the windows up, and our gay Augustine friend, coming in, congratulated us on our charming day.
The fireplace was piled up with wood and kindlings ready to be lighted in the evening; but being made to understand that it was a very sultry day, we could not, of course, suggest such an extravagance as igniting the tempting pile--an extravagance, because every stick of wood has to be brought on the backs of mules from the valleys below, at a very great expense of time and money.
The same is true of provisions of all sorts, and fodder for cattle.
Well, after breakfast I went to the front porch to view the prospect.
And what did I see there? Banks of dirty, half-melted snow, bones, and sc.r.a.ps of offal, patches of bare earth, for a small s.p.a.ce, say about fifty feet round, and then the whole region shut in by barren, inaccessible rocks, which cut off all view in every direction.
Along by the frozen lake there is a kind of causeway path made for a promenade, where one might walk to observe the beauties of the season, and our cheery entertainer offered to show it to us; so we walked out with him. Under the rocks in one place he showed us a little plat, about as large as a closet door, which, he said, laughing, was their garden.
I asked him if any thing ever really grew there. He shrugged his shoulders, and said, ”Sometimes.”
We pursued this walk till we came to the end of the lake, and there he showed me a stone pillar.
”There,” said he, ”beyond that pillar is Italy.”
”Well,” said I, ”I believe I shall take a trip into Italy.” So, as he turned back to go to the house, W. and I continued on. We went some way into Italy, down the ravine, and I can a.s.sure you I was not particularly struck with the country.
I observed no indications of that superiority in the fine arts, or of that genial climate and soil, of which I had heard so much. W. and I agreed to give ourselves airs on this subject whenever the matter of Italy was introduced, and to declare that we had been there, and had seen none of the things of which people write in books.
”What a perfectly dismal, comfortless place!” said I; but climbing up the rocks to rest me in a sunny place, I discovered that they were all enamelled with the most brilliant flowers.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _of a cl.u.s.ter of small five-petaled flowers with blunt tips growing very close to the ground._]
In particular I remarked beds of velvet moss, which bore a pink blossom, in form somewhat like this. Then there was a kind of low, starry gentian, of a bright metallic blue; I tried to paint it afterwards, but neither ultramarine nor any color I could find would represent its brilliancy; it was a kind of living brightness. I examined the petals to see how this effect was produced, and it seemed to be by a kind of prismatic arrangement of the small round particles of which they were composed. The shape of the flower was somewhat like this.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _of a cl.u.s.ter of small five petaled flowers with sharp points growing on short stalks near the ground._]