who happened to call as I was about to start. Our route lay along the
river due northward, right in the teeth of a strong north wind. A wintry
north wind is always and everywhere a disagreeable enemy to face; let
the reader try to imagine what it is when the Fahrenheit thermometer
is at 30 degrees below zero--or rather let him refrain from such an
attempt, for the sensation produced cannot be imagined by those who have
not experienced it. Of course I ought to have turned back--at least,
as soon as a sensation of faintness warned me that the circulation was
being seriously impeded--but I did not wish to confess my imprudence to
the friend who accompanied me. When we had driven about three-fourths of
the way we met a peasant-woman, who gesticulated violently, and shouted
something to us as we passed. I did not hear what she said, but my
friend turned to me and said in an alarming tone--we had been
speaking German--"Mein Gott! Ihre Nase ist abgefroren!" Now the word
"abgefroren," as the reader will understand, seemed to indicate that
my nose was frozen off, so I put up my hand in some alarm to discover
whether I had inadvertently lost the whole or part of the member
referred to. It was still in situ and entire, but as hard and insensible
as a bit of wood.

"You may still save it," said my companion, "if you get out at once and
rub it vigorously with snow."

I got out as directed, but was too faint to do anything vigorously. My
fur cloak flew open, the cold seemed to grasp me in the region of the
heart, and I fell insensible.

How long I remained unconscious I know not. When I awoke I found myself
in a strange room, surrounded by dragoon officers in uniform, and the
first words I heard were, "He is out of danger now, but he will have a