ASCENT OF MONT BLANC. 3 



came in September, with 12 in my pocket, and an 

 old soldier's knapsack on my back (bought in a 

 dirty street of the Quartier Latin for two or three 

 francs), I started from Paris for Chamouni, with 

 another equally humbly appointed fellow - student, 

 now assistant surgeon in the th Hussars. 



It was very late one evening when I arrived at the 

 little village of Sallenches, in Savoy then a cluster 

 of the humblest chalets, and not as now, since the 

 conflagration, a promising town very footsore and 

 dusty. At the door of the inn I met old Victor 

 Tairraz, who then kept the Hotel de Londres at 

 Chamouni, and was the father of the three brothers 

 who now conduct it one as maitre, the second as 

 cook, and the third as head waiter. He hoped when 

 I arrived at Chamouni that I would come to his 

 house ; and he gave me a printed card of his prices, 

 with a view of the establishment at the top of it, in 

 which every possible peak of the Mont Blanc chain 

 that could be selected from all points of the compass 

 was collected into one aspect, supposed to be the 

 view from all the bedroom windows of the establish- 

 ment in front, at the back, and on either side. I 

 was annoyed at this card ; for I could not reconcile, 

 at that golden time, my early dreams of the valley of 

 Chamouni with the ordinary business of a Star-and- 

 Garter-like hotel. 



I well remember what a night of expectation I 

 passed, reflecting that on the early morrow I should 



