pathway and grew every moment more impenetrable and harder to face.
The whirling flakes circled and danced before his sight, the winding
path was well-nigh obliterated, his brain grew dizzy and his feet
unsteady, and he felt that without assistance he should never reach
his destination in safety. Blind Raoul, though himself tired, and
longing for shelter, listened with sympathy to the priest's complaint,
and answered, "Father, you know well I am hardly a pious son of
the Church; but if the penitent dying down yonder needs spiritual
consolation from her, Heaven forbid that I should not do my utmost
to help you to him! Sightless though I am, I know my way over these
crags as no other man knows it, and the snowstorm which bewilders
your eyes so much cannot daze mine. Come, mount my mule, Hans will
go with us, and we three will take you to your journey's end safe
and sound."

"Son," answered the priest, "God will reward you for this act of
charity. The penitent to whom I go bears an evil reputation as a
sorcerer, and we all know his name well enough in these parts.
He may have some crime on his conscience which he desires to confess
before death. But for your timely help I should not be able to
fight my way through this tempest to his door, and he would certainly
perish unshriven."

The fury of the storm increased as darkness came on. Dense clouds
of snow obscured the whole landscape, and rendered sky and mountain
alike indistinguishable. Terror seized the priest; but for the
blind man, to whose sight day and night were indifferent, these
horrors had no great danger. He and his dumb friends plodded quietly
and slowly on in the accustomed path, and at length, close upon
midnight, the valley was safely reached, and the priest ushered