TRAVELS 
9 ° 
vent refpiration, the reft of the company were permitted to go 
into it. The infe&s, with which we were covered from head to 
foot, were obliged to quit their prey and remain at the door, en¬ 
raged that they durft not advance to attack us in our retreat. 
This little hole in which we were all huddled one among another, 
quite full of fmoke, and with no other carpet or floor than the 
\ • 
bare earth, was more agreeable to us than any of the inns I had 
ever vifited in France or England. In the middle of the room 
there was a good fire, and our tent placed on leaves of the birch- 
tree ferved us for a bed. We now fet about dreffing the game we 
had killed, being ourfelves the cooks. We had. a comfortable 
fupper; and while the thick and pungent fmoke made the tears 
trickle down our cheeks in large drops, we merrily drank, in a 
bumper of brandy, to the deftrudlion of our enemies, who kept us 
in a ftate of blockade, ftill hovering at the gate of our citadel, and 
furious with refentment at the trick w T e had played them. The 
hole for letting out the fmoke being opened for a fhort time, fome 
of the infedts had the courage to come in, but loon paid the forfeit 
of their temerity : but in return, if any of our garrifon made a fally 
to fetch wood or water, or any other neceftary, the whole flying 
army took ample vengeance by attacking and almoft devouring 
him alive. Having finiflied our cookery and our fupper, we laid 
ourfelves down quite clofe to one another, the Laplanders literally 
upon each other, like entwined ferpents in winter; the whole 
company lying around our great prefcrver and protestor, the cen¬ 
tral fire. 
2 
A change 
