SECRETARY'S REPORT. 321 



which it is said more than two thousand Jews, men, women 

 and chikiren, had been put to death. Then there is a short 

 cross-beam, on which criminals were hung, and the marks of a 

 door where they were thrown down into the lake. Climbing 

 up into the oubliette, there is the spot where the victim was 

 made to kneel to the virgin, when a trap-door would open and 

 precipitate him down into a well forty feet deep, where he was 

 left to die of broken limbs or starvation, 



Martigny, from which tlie ascent to the St. Bernard is com- 

 menced, is some thirty or forty miles up the valley of the Rhone, 

 from the lake, on the Simplon road, surrounded by lofty and 

 barren mountain peaks. From this point it is about ten hours' 

 walk to the summit, a passable carriage road leading to within 

 two or three miles from the hospice, when the ascent becomes 

 very steep and impassable for carriages. It was one constant 

 rise up the valley of the Drance for over thirty miles, but at 

 last, after clambering up over the broken path, the same that 

 Hannibal trod, no doubt, and after iiim Charlemagne, and still 

 later the great Napoleon, leading their conquering armies over 

 into the plains of Italy ; but at last the dark and gloomy walls 

 of the convent received us, cold and tired, and a hospitable 

 monk immediately had a warm supper provided for us. We 

 did not hesitate to do it ample justice. A blazing fire burned 

 on the hearth, and it was needed here. Though only the mid- 

 dle of September, the atmosphere was that of our November 

 or December, and overcoats and shawls were required to keep 

 comfortable in the morning, as we sauntered out in company 

 with a great tawny yellow, short haired dog, whose benevolent 

 face led me to take to him, and to think how glad I should be 

 to pay his tax and get him registered. We walked out in tbe 

 cutting, piercing air, to the Morgue, a small stone house open 

 at one side, but barred by an iron grating, where the skeletons 

 and bodies of lost wayfarers are deposited, that they may be 

 seen and identified by their friends. There they were, as large 

 as life, just in the positions in which they had laid when found, 

 the skin dried and blackened, but not decayed. In this high 

 rarified atmosphere no decay takes place. The body is as 

 much mummified as it could be in the hands of an old Egyptian. 



It was some gratification to find in the morning that the 

 best room in the establishment had been allotted to us by the 



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