But, The Mountains And Roads Being Entirely Covered With
Snow To A Considerable Depth, There Was Little Or No
Reverberation, And The Sound Was Not Louder Than That Of A Pop-Gun,
Although The Piece Contained A Good Charge Of Powder.
Nevertheless, it did not fail to engage the attention of the
strangers, one of whom immediately wheeled to the left about, and
being by this time very near me, gave me an opportunity of
contemplating his whole person.
He was very tall, meagre, and
yellow, with a long hooked nose, and small twinkling eyes. His
head was eased in a woollen night-cap, over which he wore a
flapped hat; he had a silk handkerchief about his neck, and his
mouth was furnished with a short wooden pipe, from which he
discharged wreathing clouds of tobacco-smoke. He was wrapped in a
kind of capot of green bays, lined with wolf-skin, had a pair of
monstrous boots, quilted on the inside with cotton, was almost
covered with dirt, and rode a mule so low that his long legs hung
dangling within six inches of the ground. This grotesque figure
was so much more ludicrous than terrible, that I could not help
laughing; when, taking his pipe out of his mouth, he very
politely accosted me by name. You may easily guess I was
exceedingly surprised at such an address on the top of the
mountain Brovis: but he forthwith put an end to it too, by
discovering himself to be the marquis M - , whom I had the honour
to be acquainted with at Nice.
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