MONT BLANC 235 



A day or two later de Saussure 's Bernese friend and corre- 

 spondent Wyttenbach met at Servoz the Happy Warrior on his 

 return. He describes how de Saussure rushed into his arms 

 with the exclamation : ' Congratulate me : I come from the 

 conquest of Mont Blanc.' After all, de Saussure had the feelings 

 of a climber as well as of a philosopher ! 



It was no doubt on reading the first account of his success 

 that Madame Necker was drawn to address to de Saussure (with 

 whom she had recently become connected by his daughter's 

 marriage to her nephew) her congratulations : 



' We have trembled while following you among precipices and perils;; 

 you have made us experience all the feelings of hope and fear which 

 render the life of the chamois-hunter at once so delightful and so 

 terrible ; we have fancied ourselves enjoying with you the magnificent 

 spectacle with which you were greeted when, a modern Enceladus, 

 you scaled Mont Blanc. 



' You have lifted my soul, Monsieur, by showing me these store- 

 houses of the world, and I continually grieve at the weakness which 

 hinders me from following in your footsteps. But my imagination 

 supplies my lack of strength. While I read you I hear the dull roar 

 of avalanches and the palpitations of the electric current. Full of 

 terror and admiration I see at times in the distance the grave of the 

 rash hunter, I watch his shade wandering peacefully in these solitudes, 

 and feel that I envy him. I imagine that I could wish to end my 

 days in these quiet retreats beside M. Necker, so as to render a last 

 homage to Nature and to married love, the only things that remain 

 to us in the wreck of all the illusions of life. We have shuddered to- 

 gether over your dangers while admiring your courage ; and, remember- 

 ing the ties that attach us to you, we feel we have a right to urge 

 you to take care of a life very dear to us.' 



Bourrit, who, forced by the guides' refusal, had returned to 

 Chamonix with de Saussure, very pluckily started again next 

 day for the bivouac, but, with his habitual bad luck, met with a 

 break in the weather. His equally habitual impatience again 

 betrayed him. The break was but a passing storm. His guides, 

 he tells us, held a debate about waiting at the bivouac or returning, 

 but what decided the question was his having some dust blown 

 into his eye. His son states that his father's eyes suffered from 

 exposure to the rough weather. This incident is accounted for by 

 Mr. Mark Beaufoy, the young Englishman who on the 8th of 



