It is quite impossible for those who have not seen the country, to
appreciate the devotedness to the Christian cause, which could induce
Neff to entertain even the thought of making the dreary and savage
Dormilleuse his own head quarters from November to April, and of
persuading others to be the companions of his dismal sojournment there.
I learn from a memorandum in his Journal, that the severity of that,
winter commenced early. "We have been in snow and ice since the first of
November, on this steep and rugged spot, whose aspect is more terrible
and severe than any thing can be supposed to be in France." He himself
was the native of a delightful soil and climate, and even some of the
mountaineers, whom he drew to that stern spot, were inhabitants of a
far less repulsive district, but had yet made it their custom to seek a
milder region than their own, during the inclemency of an Alpine winter.
To secure attendance and application, when once his students were
embarked in their undertaking, he selected this rock, where neither
amusement, nor other occupations, nor the possibility of frequent egress
or regress, could tempt them to interrupt their studies:--and he had
influence enough to induce them to commit themselves to a five months'
rigid confinement within a prison-house, as it were, walled up with ice
and snow.

It was a long probation of hardship. Their fare was in strict accordance
with the rest of their situation. It consisted of a store of salted
meat, and rye bread, which had been baked in autumn, and when they came
to use it, was so hard, that it required to be chopped up with hatchets,
and to be moistened with hot water. Meal and flour will not keep in this
mountain atmosphere, but would become mouldy,--they are, therefore,
obliged to bake it soon after the corn is threshed out. Our youthful
anchorites were lodged gratuitously by the people of Dormilleuse, who
also liberally supplied them with food for fuel, scarce as it was,