204 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



avoid this. As to my mode of coming down, I followed the advice 

 of Gervais, who saw how impossible it was for me, with ruined boots 

 which had lost their heels, to keep myself from falling. I was forced 

 to put my feet in his footsteps ; and, if I rested on him, I took care 

 to do so as lightly as possible.' 



Bourrit, with his usual fear of cold, had attempted to climb 

 the rocks in fur boots ! 



Having thus far tried to make out a case for himself, Bourrit 

 enclosed as a peace-offering an account of the expedition warmly 

 eulogising de Saussure. To this de Saussure replied as follows : 



' My intention, sir, is not to cause you pain, but I was obliged to 

 take steps to put a stop to legends such as your own conversation 

 gave cause to apprehend. No one perhaps believes moite than I do 

 in the kindness and honesty of your heart, but I know very well also 

 that your flighty imagination often makes you see things in a false 

 light. If you could put aside this tendency, there is no reason why 

 you should not keep an agreeable recollection of our excursion. I had 

 every reason to be satisfied both with you and your son. The letter, 

 of which you furnished me a copy, seems to be excellent, except that 

 I am too much praised, which is not what I want. I can do very well 

 without praise, and I do not desire to be put in the foreground, but I 

 cannot however, let us say no more. Do not be vexed, and I beg 

 you to get to work on a fine drawing of the Aiguille du Gouter which 

 may help to explain our expedition and may be engraved in the volume 

 I have in the press.' 



Before Bourrit had had time to get this reply, his son Isaac 

 had fired off a long and singularly impertinent letter to de Saussure : 

 4 Sir,' he wrote, ' do you not envy me my twenty -one years ? 

 Who will wonder if a youth of this age, who has nothing to lose, 

 is bolder than a father of a family, a man of forty-six ? ' 



De Saussure 's reply is a model of the retort courteous : 



' Monsieur, a moderate amount of boastfulness is no great crime, 

 especially at your age. This is all I charge you with, and your letter 

 is a fresh proof of it. You say you descended agilely. It is true, you 

 descended agilely enough in the easy places, but in the difficult places 

 you were, like your father, resting on the shoulder of one guide in front, 

 and held up behind by another. I don't blame you for these pre- 

 cautions ; they were wise, prudent, even indispensable ; but in no 

 language in the world is that style of progress styled agile climbing. 



