smallest alarm, you are infallibly precipitated; to the right hangs
an impervious wood, and there, sir, I can assure you, are wolves
enough to devour a regiment; a little farther on, you cross a
desolate tract of forest land, the roads so deep and broken, that if
you go ten paces in as many minutes you may think yourself fortunate.
There lurk the most savage banditti in Europe, lately irritated by
the Prince of Orange's proscription; and so desperate, that if they
once attack, you can expect no mercy. Should you venture through
this hazardous district to-morrow, you will, in all probability, meet
a company of people who have just left the town to search for the
mangled bodies of their relations; but, for Heaven's sake, sir, if
you value your life, do not suffer an idle curiosity to lead you over
such dangerous regions, however picturesque their appearance."

I own I felt rather intimidated by so formidable a prospect, and was
very near abandoning my plan of crossing the mountains, and so go
back again and round about, the Lord knows where; but considering
this step would be quite unheroical, I resolved to attribute my fears
to the gloom of the moment, and the dejection it occasioned. It was
almost nine o'clock before my kind adviser ceased inspiring me with
terrors; then, finding myself at liberty, I retired to bed, not under
the most agreeable impressions; and after tossing and tumbling in the
agitation of tumultuous slumbers, I started up at seven in the
morning of July 15th, ordered the horses, and set forward, without
further dilemmas. Though it had thundered almost the whole night,
the air was still clogged with vapours, the mountains bathed in humid
clouds, and the scene I had so warmly admired no longer discernible.
Proceeding along the edge of the precipices I had been forewarned of,
for about an hour, and escaping that peril at least, we traversed the
slopes of a rude, heathy hill, in instantaneous expectation of foes