great attention to hear any noise; but all was in vain. The guides came upon us, and forced us, so to express it, to come out of the crevice. They declared our search useless; they even refused the money that we offered them if they would wait; they laid hold of Dornford and Henderson; and while I was still sounding the snow (which had passed the crevice for a great space), they proceeded immediately with them to some distance; so that I was under the necessity of descending with only Coutet, who had not even a stick; but absorbed in the horror of the event, I was become insensible to danger, and I crossed all the crevices without thinking of them. I did not rejoin my two companions till I arrived at the Grand Mulet, from whence we set off for the Glacier des Bossons, and at half past eight in the evening, we returned to the Hotel de l'Union at Chamouny, without experiencing any great degree of fatigue. I was the more astonished at this, because, for an hour after the accident, I made great efforts in an elevated situation where the least exertion exhausts the strength.

*

"I shall here add a few words explanatory of our unfortunate accident. It appeared that the upper stratum of the snow on the

clivity lay upon another stra 1 m, which was very slippery on

* In crossing the Glacier des Bosons, we found a young chamois upon an isle of ice, surrounded with enormous crevices, it had probably died from inanition One of the high seracs, under the shade of which we had reposed in our ascent, had fallen in the interval, and had covered the spot on which we had stopped, with its frag

ments.

the surface; and as our track cat the first stratum across, the part which was above us began to sip upon the other, forming what is called in the l'Oberland de Berne, suoggischnee, or rutschlavine. In that part where the first of our file walked, the acclivity was much steeper than near me where I had measured it a little before the accident; there it inclined st an angle of 28°. Further on, the mass of snow was also thicker, especially high up; for the wind usually drifts there the loosesnOW blown from the summit. Forthese reasons, the slipping necessarily began at this place, and the snow descended directly towards the crevice; while about me it took an oblique direction forward. It was on this account that the three first of the file* fell so deep into the crevice, and were covered with snow, so that we were unable to discover them, while the fifth and sixth,† who had also fallen in, were able to disengage themselves. Coutet came up with his face of a blue appearance, and with symptoms of suffocation. Mathieu Balmat, who was a very strong man, and one of our principal guides, walked

They were Pierre Balmat, bro

ther of Mathieu, and eldest son of P. Balmat, one of the ancient guides of M. de Saussure; Pierre Carrier, a smith by trade, who had been 11 times Terraz. This last, and P. Balmet, had upon Mont Blanc; and Auguste never been on Mont Blanc, and were the two guides who refused to remain at the Grand Mulet. These three carried the provisions, the instruments, the pigeon, and a live fowl. No one of them was married.

+Joseph Marie Coutet, one of our principal guides (his father was also with M. de Saussure), and Julien Devvausson, who escaped being poisoned by oil of vitriol.

Naples.]

"The road from Lucera to Foggia is almost a repetition of that from Troja to Lucera; but it crosses no stream; and one solitary undeviating path over ten miles of perfect level ground, without tree, bush, or house in sight, brought me to the capital of Capitanata, which has gates, but no walls, the houses being so irregularly scattered about it, that it is difficult to fix precisely where the town begins. I could find no lodging at the numerous inns which displayed their signs on each side of me, but were already filled by the arrivals for the ensuing fair; so that I had penetrated some way into the city before there appeared any chance of my being accommodated at all; when, just as I had turned out of a street, or rather square, in which I had observed some troops drawn out as for a parade, a sudden volley of musketry, which I took for the crash of a building falling, followed by a general flight of the inhabitants, uttering cries of terror and dismay, arrested my attention: soon after, a gentleman hurrying by, desired me to alight, which I did, though utterly unable to guess the motive of this advice; while a second as strenuously recommended my remounting my horse and galloping away. The first idea that darted across my mind was that of an earthquake, and a number of persons rushing at once out of an adjoining house tended to confirm it. I walked on, in vain addressing the fugitives who passed me in every

direction, till a boy took my horse's bridle, and led him through some obscure by-streets to an inn at the skirts of the town, where we took refuge in a room on the ground-floor, into which my servants and the guide, together with all the horses and myself, entered, as if by one common instinet, but still in total ignorance of the cause of alarm. The cries of several women, tearing their hair, and the incoherent exclamations they uttered, among which I could only distinguish the word brigands, at last led me to conjecture that a party of banditti had forced their way into the town, and were engaged with regular troops. The door had been carefully barricadoed at the moment of our entry; but through the small windows several soldiers were observable lurking about in parties, with their muskets ready, and at times a dragoon passed in full gallop, apparently engaged in pursuit. These circumstances, and occasional musket shots, confirmed my suspicions: but that a gang of robbers, however daring and desperate, should have made an attack at mid-day on a large city, respectably garrisoned, seemed so improbable, that I continued in a state of doubt, till the son of my hostess made his appearance; and after being repeatedly kissed and wept upon, by his mother and her dishevelled companions, he gave me a clearer insight into the affair, by relating, in an imperfect manner, the details, which were sub

sequently made known to me from a source more authentic, and which are as follows:

"The remains of the Vardarelli band had presented themselves that morning before the general commanding at Foggia: they formed, in fact, part of the troops I had seen, and were, at the moment I passed, engaged in a war of words, which soon was waged with more deadly weapons. It seems that the general, who had received the intimation of their arrival, gave orders for them to be inspected the instant that it took place. After they had dismounted and given a satisfactory account of their late proceedings, they received directions to repair to Lucera, and there await further commands. This mandate they positively refused to obey; and a long altercation took place between them and an officer sent from the commander's house, before which they were ranged, to remonstrate on the imprudence, not to say temerity, of their behaviour. The general finally commanded the two leaders to repair to his own apartment to speak to them: this they objected to do without their arms, which they declared they would never part from; and it is supposed that the language they made use of in the course of their argument so exasperated the officer, that he roughly pushed one of them back, who was using threatening gestures, on which the other fired his musket at him, but having missed his mark, was shot dead on the spot by the sentry at the gate. This was the signal for an attack from his companions, that was immediately answered by a round of musketry from the troops who were drawn VOL. LXIII.

out close to them, which killed several, and spread consternation among the crowds of town's-people who had assembled on the spot. Four of the band, who had presence of mind to spring upon their horses, escaped in different directions out of the town, though followed by cavalry, and fired at as they fled. Another portion were made prisoners; but a third division sought security in a cellar, the first place of refuge which offered itself, and which having only one very low entrance, afforded them a defensible asylum for some time. The depth and darkness of this receptacle made it difficult to attack them with success, for they killed a soldier, and wounded several others, who had ventured too near the aperture. Of this last desperate set, four, however, gave themselves up, and made known the number that remained. In order to bring as speedy a termination as possible to the dismay and agitation which this event had spread throughout the city, two of those who had been last taken were sent in to their companions, with their hands tied, to persuade them to surrender, and to inform them, that if they persevered in a resistance, which from the local nature of their retreat must be unavailing, a straw fire would be lighted at the orifice, as the only means of hastening their compliance or destruction. The unfortunate men never returned; and no answer being given, this threat was put into actual execution, and the aperture blocked up with stones. Imagination pictures their situation as most horrible; but its terrors were eluded by the last resource of despair. Two hours afterwards, the cellar was 2 X

entered without opposition, and their lifeless bodies, covered with wounds, indicated the death they had received at each other's hands.

"In about five hours some degree of tranquillity was restored to the city; and it was evident that the feelings of alarm occasioned by this singular event, and even those of aversion and universal reprobation which the excesses of the banditti had excited, now yielded to emotions of compassion, called forth by so terrific and untimely a death. Even the policy which prompted this severe punishment met with comments and constructions by no means favourable to those whose duty it was to inflict it.

"In the evening the shops were re-opened, and I ventured to send my letters of recommendation to the general commandant of the division, and the intendente, who both showed me every attention and civility during my stay. But I had with me a document of similar import addressed to a very different character from either of these distinguished personages.

On my leaving Benevento, one of its most respectable inhabitants, fearing I might encounter the Vardarelli troop on their way to head quarters, gave me a letter of introduction to one of them, which he assured me would be the means of securing me from all such danger as the existing uncertainty of their projects and movements might render possible, if not probable. The person to whom it was addressed had been employed on a farm of the writer, and retained a friendly and even respectful feeling towards his former master, which had shown

itself on several occasions since they had parted. Curiosity led me to inquire whether this person was among the survivors of the dreadful catastrophe of the morning; and having sent to the prison where they were confined, for the purpose of ascertaining the fact, I was answered in the affirmative, and conducted, as I imagined, to the cell which contained the object of my inquiries. It seems that the substance of my message having been conveyed from mouth to mouth, had undergone a material change in its purport; and before I was rendered aware of the misunderstanding, I found myself in a low vaulted room, at the back of the public prisons, and standing opposite to several naked bodies exposed on some straw. One of these was pointed out to me as that of the individual whom I sought.

"The infliction of a sudden and violent death on a robust and active frame is far from producing those effects which the repeated attacks of disease, or the gradual decay of the vital powers, leave impressed in characters so awful or offensive on the human coun

tenance: the setting rays of the same sun which had cast its morning radiance on beings moving in the full energy of existence, now shone on their lifeless but not inexpressive features. The turmoil of passions which had agitated the last dreadful moments of their existence was visibly though variously depicted in every face; nor could the expression be mistaken: the sullen brow, strongly contracted over the glaring eyeball, the pallid lip, curled to a sardonic smile, each bespoke the final agonies of desperate bravery, ineffectual re