LETTER LXI.

T was not till the evening of the fixth day

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that our proceffion arrived at Lannefbourg at the foot of Mount Cenis. Nothing but miserable fights of human infirmity had occurred in this latter part of the valley. From St. Jean de Maurienne to Mount Cenis I faw little befides fallow countenances and emaciated forms. St. André appeared, indeed, the head-quarters of goitrous idiotifm and wretchednefs. Mountains on either fide feemed to comprefs, within a most gloomy and infalubrious fort of dungeon, these woe-begone inhabitants, who called to my mind

the wasteful hoft

Of pain and fickness, fqualid and deform'd.

You will readily conceive that great falls of fnow could not much improve a track which

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paffed

paffed over the declivities of mountains. Sixteen miles performed between the hours of ten and four, will enable you to judge of our pace and patience. The diversity of shapes and magnitudes, which the vast clufter of Alps, among which we were now moving, presented, under a deep coating of fnow, made a very curious appearance.

In a village through which we paffed, fome violent fhouts excited our curiofity. We found they were occafioned by an event of great importance to the inhabitants, the fhooting of a bear, which had made frequent defcents upon this wretched hamlet, and borne off confiderable booty; till the lofs of an infant, whom he was supposed to have stolen, enraged the peasants, who pursued this inhuman depredator into the favage wilds in which he refided, and, at the moment of our arrival, Bruin was dragging in triumph through the village.

The approach to Lannefbourg offered a curious fpectacle. The valley through

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which

which we had been journeying for fome days, and which had gradually narrowed, now appeared to terminate; and the mountain over which we were to pass seemed to oppofe, by the tracklefs fnow which inveloped it, an infuperable barrier. We entered Lannefbourg before the day closed, and were inftantly furrounded by a number of men, who demanded permiffion to pull our carriages to pieces by royal authority. I refpect governments wherever I go, and would not wantonly pour contempt upon any of his Sardinian Majesty's subjects; but I think in my confcience, that an affemblage of more ill-looking wretches never acted under government authority. A commiffioner foon fhowed himself at the head of thefe raggamuffins, and throwing out a tariffe, in length "a full cloth-yard or more," gave us our choice of travelling accommodations, with the prices fettled by order of the police. Our negociation with him was expedited by the preffing defire of finding

the

the comforts of a blazing fire, and a trout fished out of the Lake of Mount Cenis. A very converfible madamoiselle, the daughter of the landlord, attended on us at supper, and did credit to the vivacity and naïveté of the Savoyardes.

The hotel, which is newly set up, flands a very fair chance of fucceeding; for, in addition to the bad reputation under which the other labours, of being the worst and most imposing inn in Chriftendom, I have no where seen a little fyren better calculated for detaining travellers, who are not violently preffed to crofs the mountain.

IT

LETTER LXII.

T was not by the aid of mules and porters, fedans and fledges, that the hero of Carthage made his entrée into Italy: and yet I much question whether the Carthaginian foldiers complained more emphatically of cold,

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cold, fatigue, and inconvenience, than we did. I am impatient to carry you over this mountain, or I could expatiate very largely upon the murmurs I uttered and heard in the afcent from Lannefbourg. The air was. indeed impregnated with particles of intense; cold, and made its way through all the armour with which we were provided. One. hour brought us upon the plain, when, to recover from the effects of thefe severities, we were conducted to a shed, in which a fire recovered us to fomething like good humour. From this fhed we were feverally drawn in a fledge to the fouthern extremity. of the plain, by mules who trotted with confiderable fwiftnefs through the fnows. The poft is fituated a mid-distance on this route, and was carefully announced to us by the guides and muleteers. At the Grande Croix, in the extremity of the plain, were some objects upon which I could not but beftow a fhare of attention. To the right was the lake fo celebrated for

the