Us to quicken our pace
as we were now certain we could not be far from the woods. Indeed we were
making considerable progress when Belanger unfortunately broke through
the ice and sank up to the hips. The weather being cold, he was in danger
of freezing, but some brushwood on the borders of the lake enabled us to
make a fire to dry him. At the same time we took the opportunity of
refreshing ourselves with a kettle of swamp tea.
My increasing debility had for some time obliged me to use a stick for
the purpose of extending my arms, the pain in my shoulders being so acute
that I could not bear them to remain in the usual position for two
minutes together. We halted at five among some small brushwood and made a
sorry meal of an old pair of leather trousers and some swamp tea.
The night was cold with a hard frost and though two persons slept
together yet we could not by any means keep ourselves warm, but remained
trembling the whole time. The following morning we crossed several lakes,
occasionally seeing the recent tracks of deer, and at noon we fell upon
Marten Lake; it happened to be at the exact spot where we had been the
last year with the canoes yet, though I immediately recognised the place,
the men would not believe it to be the same; at length by pointing out
several marks and relating circumstances connected with them they
recovered their memory, and a simultaneous expression of "Mon Dieu, nous
sommes sauves," broke from the whole.
