58 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



bridge ; the ladies at the hotels waving their hand- 

 kerchiefs, and the men cheering ; and a harpist and a 

 violin-player now joined the cortege. TVhen we got 

 into the court of our hotel, M. Edouard Tairraz had 

 dressed a little table with some beautiful bouquets 

 and wax candles, until it looked uncommonly like an 

 altar, but for the half-dozen of champagne that formed 

 a portion of its ornaments ; and here we were invited 

 to drink with him, and be gazed at and have our 

 hands shaken by everybody. One or two enthusiastic 

 tourists expected me there and then to tell them all 

 about it ; but the crowd was now so great, and the 

 guns so noisy, and the heat and dust so oppressive, 

 coupled with the state of excitement in which we all 

 were, that I was not sorry to get away and hide in a 

 comfortable warm bath which our worthy host had 

 prepared already. This, with an entire change of 

 clothes, and a quiet comfortable dinner, put me all 

 right again; and at night, when I was standing in 

 the balcony of my chamber window, looking at the 

 twinkling pine illuminations on the bridge, and 

 watching the last glow of sunset once more disappear 

 from the summit of the grand old mountain king, I 

 could hardly persuade myself that the whole affair 

 had not been a wonderful dream. 



I did not sleep very well when I went to bed. I 

 was tumbling down precipices all night long, and so 

 feverish that I drank off the entire contents of a large 

 water-jug before morning. My face, in addition, gave 



