in, but was now untenanted. We then secured the front door, and opening the one leading into the yard, rushed out in a body, hoping by that means to scatter our enemies should they be collected to attack us; but all was quiet as the grave, and on entering the stable we were no less surprised than rejoiced to find our horses and carriages untouched. We then began to breathe; and as the morning was breaking our spirits rose, and I suggested that while two were putting the horses in the carriages, one should accompany me to search the cellar and loft, as it would be a piece of good fortune if we could secure only one rascal and deliver him up to justice; but we found no one—and, indeed, nothing save a bag of meal and a cask of wine, which we let run over the meal, as the only mode of revenge left open to us.

'When all was ready to start, we went round the house and examined under the window of our bedroom, where we found a pool of blood, but did not deem it prudent to follow the traces further than the outskirts of the wood, up to which blood was distinctly visible. This over, we set off at a gallop, expecting every moment to receive a volley from our foes. We had full two hours' ride through the forest, and it was not until we were out of it that we found

the use of our tongues. By that time the sun was up; and when we had leisure to look into each other's faces, we agreed that we had more the savage look of murderers, than of men flying for their lives. From the first moment of attack, our attention had been so strained, our whole thoughts so exclusively occupied in guarding against the dangers that threatened us on all sides, that it was not until we were in the open country that we began fully to realise the horrors of the dreadful fate we had escaped froman escape we owed to the prudence and coolness of my brother-in-law; for if the wretches had been able to obtain entrance into our bed-room, they would have cut us to pieces with their hatchets; and after obtaining possession of my brother's belt-the prize, it was evident, they most coveted, from their having left the horses and carriages untouched-they would have burned the carriages, killed the horses, taken off the booty to the woods, and nothing would ever have been known of us, or our fate.

'On reaching Bletteran, our first care was to make our report to the Procureur-Royal and the Gendarmerie, who told us that the house had long been suspecte, and more than once searched, on account of robberies and other crimes having been supposed to have been committed there; but nothing had ever

S

been discovered or proved against the people, and to search the woods without a large armed force was impossible, as horses could not penetrate far; and for a few gendarmes to go on foot, was to cause death without any good resulting from it. We left our depositions in the hands of the authorities, and, after travelling a few days longer with my brothers, I left them to go farther south.

'About a year and a half after, on returning from Paris, influenced probably by a strong desire I had to know if anything more had ever come to light on the matter, I again passed along the same road, but this time in a diligence in the middle of the day, and heard from the driver an exaggerated account of our adventures there, with the additional information, that, soon after, a troop of gendarmes had been despatched to the place, and, whilst making researches, discovered the bodies of a young girl and a gendarme buried in the cellar-that the house had been destroyed by order of the Government, and nothing had ever been heard or seen of the old woman or servantgirl, who were supposed to have gone off into the woods, since the night of our extraordinary escape. -And now, if the brandy is not all burned away, let us have some punch.'

CHAPTER XIII.

Second Artist's Tale-Tale of Horrors-Brigands-La Handek-The Ghost laid-The French Artist's Tale-Morven and Morvendiaux-Night in a lonely Auberge-Presentiment-Flight.

In the intervals of smoking and sipping their punch, Mons. B begged that the children might be sent to bed, before he commenced his tale, as he assured us, it contained incidents of so startling and frightful a nature, that they might have a very alarming effect upon their nerves. Against this, the younger ones stoutly protested, assuring him that the more they were frightened, the more they liked it: but I saw that the little pupil was becoming nervous, until I whispered something in his ear that composed him, and enabled him to listen quietly to Mons. B 'tale of horrors,' as he termed it.

-'s

"In the summer of 1840 my friend the Brigadier and I made a tour through the Upper Valais, and a portion of the neighbouring Canton de Berne; and, being both of us younger, more active, and sure of

foot than at present, when even the ascent of a few insignificant rocks skirting a cascade is attended with danger (cries of "Order" from the Brigadier)— we accomplished the difficult task of passing over the Strahleck from Gründenwald to Grimsels, where we slept at the Hospice, then tenanted by the celebrated Zibbach, who gained his unenviable notoriety by murdering a student a few years after our visit.

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Being dreadfully fatigued with our long and hard day's journey of sixteen hours, we slept so late the following morning, that it was afternoon before we set out on our return to Meyringen, where we intended stopping two or three days. Having lingered on our way to sketch the lonely châlet of Roderichsboden, the only human dwelling between the Hospice and the little hamlet of La Handek, we found that we had consumed so much of the daylight, that we had better stop and sleep at the latter place, where we knew we could get both supper and a bed, and a view of the Falls of the Aar in the morning, instead of attempting to reach Meyringen that night.

'Before coming to Handek, the road passes, or did pass, for some distance, through a forest of firs strewn with shattered rocks-about as gloomy and murdersuggesting a place as anyone can imagine—and we began to wish we had retained the services of at least