In A Word, We Were
Obliged To Tie A Rope About His Heel, And All The People In The
House Assisting To Pull, The Poor Marquis Was Drawn From One End
Of The Apartment To The Other Before The Boot Would Give Way:
At
last his legs were happily disengaged, and the machines carefully
dried and stuffed for next day's journey.
We took our departure from hence at three in the morning, and at
four, began to mount the Col de Tende, which is by far the
highest mountain in the whole journey: it was now quite covered
with snow, which at the top of it was near twenty feet thick.
Half way up, there are quarters for a detachment of soldiers,
posted here to prevent smuggling, and an inn called La Ca, which
in the language of the country signifies the house. At this
place, we hired six men to assist us in ascending the mountain,
each of them provided with a kind of hough to break the ice, and
make a sort of steps for the mules. When we were near the top,
however, we were obliged to alight, and climb the mountain
supported each by two of those men, called Coulants who walk upon
the snow with great firmness and security. We were followed by
the mules, and though they are very sure-footed animals, and were
frost-shod for the occasion, they stumbled and fell very often;
the ice being so hard that the sharp-headed nails in their shoes
could not penetrate.
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