314 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



I heard the sound of bells. I listened more attentively. 

 Yes, I was right • but then the thought occurred to me, 

 how could such a peal as that come from Partenkirchen, 

 or Garmisch, or indeed any other village ? I looked up, 

 to see if Bauer's countenance betrayed a sign of having 

 heard them too ; but nothing there told me that he had, 

 and how should he ? for it was the well-known sound 

 of the Bath Abbey bells, that were ringing as merry a 

 peal as I had ever heard them do in the days of my boy- 

 hood. I got up, and stood, and looked round, and con- 

 vinced myself I was not asleep ; but still I heard the dear, 

 well-remembered bells, that were as familiar as the voices 

 of old friends. Now they fell, as if borne away on the 

 wind, and then again came swelling on the ear, as though 

 the ringers were pulling right lustily. It was so real, 

 that, had it been some simple church-bell merely, I might 

 have been cheated into belief; but there was no mistak- 

 ing those of my own dear native Bath. The author of 

 that most delightful of books 'Eothen' mentions some- 

 thing of the sort occurring to him on a journey, — if I 

 remember rightly, when he was crossing the Desert* 



We went on, and still on, and it seemed as if there 

 was no end to our steep ascent. I could hardly drag 

 my limbs along, so weary was I ; and had I been alone, 



* I ought perhaps to mention that I had been at Bath but a week or 

 two before. In both case3 the circumstance arose, no doubt, from the 

 nerves being unstrung by coming illness ; for it was afterwards that I 

 fell sick at Partenkirchen, and the author of ' Eothen,' on arriving at 

 Cairo, had an attack of fever, if not of the plague. I am inclined to 

 think that in every instance, whether such sounds are heard at sea or 

 elsewhere, a state of debility or excitement would be found to be an at- 

 tendant circumstance, were the matter inquired into. If nothing un- 

 toward follow, it is thought no more of; but should the person by whom 

 such music is heard die soon afterwards, it is then looked upon as a 

 supernatural warning, and a friendly summons is recognized in those 

 loud sounds of home. 



