240 Mine Host’s Second Story. (Serr. 
tain. The fresh layer of ice not yet incorporated with the old crust of 
this region was now partially liquified, and resting ona surface of frozen 
ground that rendered it as slippery as quicksilver. But the rapid con- 
verging of the hill to the point of its summit gave us a smaller scope for 
survey than before ; and, with a sanguine confidence of the speedy end 
to our labours, we recommenced them stoutly and effectively. But the 
sun was already high in the heavens, and our hearts had sunk at the 
delay of our hopes, when, at a little way from the road-side, some one 
discovered an object more hideous than I can fully describe—distorted, 
ghastly—rather a heap of carrion flesh, than a human being. Some birds 
of prey that had settled on it, disturbed by our approach, first gave 
notice of its situation by the heavy flapping of their wings, as, with angry 
cries, they raised themselves, unsated with their repast, from the mangled 
carcass. Slowly wheeling round and round at the height of afew yards 
above us, they watched us, as if eager to recommence their dainty meal 
on the first shew of our departure. They had left the dead man—they 
had spared much ; but a mother could not have known such a son again. 
His features all confused and eaten away—his person rigid and stiffened, 
or gorged upon by the eagles and vultures! Most horrible! most 
awful! Wehad recognized the three former corpses, and there remained 
no doubt as to the identity of this one. It could be no other than the 
relic of that fine and manly youth for whom Rosalia had exhibited so 
generous an interest on the preceding evening. Within sight, within 
hearing of his messmates in the guard-room, Mackenzie had probably 
found it impossible to resist the last impulse of that fatal weariness which 
closes the eyelids of the wayfarer with a sleep as.cold as the ice around 
him. The snow that must so soon have buried him was kept or cleared 
off by the greedy birds that we startled at their feast; and there he lay, 
a spectacle so piteous, so horrid, that the most cruel of hearts must needs 
be softened even by the recollection of it! 
«« This has been a most inhospitable story, Sir; for neither you nor I 
have much merriment at the end of it; and a host’s tele should be 
pregnant with laughter, as an epigram winds up with its point.—Come, 
Sir, let me pour you out another cupful ; and believe me, that when next 
you honour me with so long a hearing, I will find out something for you 
better worth your courtesy—But here comes my little grand-niece, 
Manina—the first-born of that same laughing girl of whom I talked just 
now. She shall make my peace with you, and obliterate all thoughts of 
the Antenna Mare.” 
She did come !—Ah, me!—that the lively prattle of a child 
should leave a deeper sorrow than the miserable record which I have 
here set down! FEV an. 
