head, the reader would probably never have been troubled with any
account of my sensations. As it was, my feet, though protected by
immensely heavy iron-shod shoes, received a concussion the effects of
which continued to be felt for weeks.

Almost at the moment of this incident I had noticed a dark object
shooting past me, at so close a proximity that I distinctly heard the
whistling sound as it cleft the air. Supposing it to be a stone, I gave
it no further thought, and my attention was presently occupied by a
sharp gash which the young eagle at my belt managed to inflict on my
left thigh. It was not until I had stopped the haemorrhage by strewing
some grains of powder into the wound that I perceived with surprise that
I was still stationary, instead of ascending, as in due course I ought
to have been. The boulder of rock projecting a few feet over my head
prevented any view of the ledge, and my shouts inquiring the cause of
the delay received indistinct answers, the words "patience" and "wait"
being the only intelligible ones. These might have had a consoling
influence but for the fact that a thunderstorm--an occurrence of great
frequency in the beginning of summer in the High Alps--was fast
approaching, and my position was one that exposed me to its full fury
without any possibility of escape. Ere long it burst over my head,
drenching me to the skin in the first five minutes, while the lightning
played about me in every direction, and terrific claps of thunder
followed each other at intervals of scarcely a few seconds. What
heightened the danger as well as the absurdity of my situation was the
chance that one or both of the old eagles might return at any moment,
under circumstances that must render a struggle, if any ensued, a most
unequal one. Supposing my guards to be still at their post, the distance
of the ledge was such as to make a shot at a flying bird, large as it
might be, anything but a sure one; and the tactics of the golden eagle