The Headsman - James Fenimore Cooper
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At no time during the day had the industry of the party been as great as
it now became. In this respect, the ordinary traveller is apt to resemble
him who journeys on the great highway of life, and who finds himself
obliged, by a tardy and ill-requited diligence in age, to repair those
omissions and negligences of youth which would have rendered the end of
his toil easy and profitable. Improved as their speed had become, it
continued to increase rather than to diminish, for Pierre Dumont kept his
eye riveted on the heavens, and each moment of time seemed to bring new
incentives to exertion. The wearied beasts manifested less zeal than the
guide, and they who rode them were beginning to murmur at the
unreasonableness of the rate at which they were compelled to proceed on
the narrow, uneven, stony path, where footing for the animals was not
always obtained with the necessary quickness, when a gloom deeper that
cast by the shadows of the rocks fell upon their track, and the air filled
with snow, as suddenly as if all its particles had been formed and
condensed by the application of some prompt chemical process.
The change was so unexpected, and yet so complete, that the whole party
checked their mules, and sat looking up at the millions of flakes that
were descending on their heads, with more wonder and admiration than fear.
A shout from Pierre first aroused them from this trance, and recalled them
to a sense of the real state of things. He was standing on a knoll,
already separated from the party by some fifty yards, white with snow, and
gesticulating violently for the travellers to come on.
"For the sake of the Blessed Maria! quicken the beasts," he cried; for
Pierre, like most who dwell in Valais, was a Catholic, and one accustomed
to bethink him most of his heavenly mediator when most oppressed with
present dangers; "quicken their speed, if ye value your lives! This is no
moment to gaze at the mountains, which are well enough in their way, and
no doubt both the finest and largest known," (no Swiss ever seriously
vituperates or loses his profound veneration for his beloved nature,) "but
which had better be the humblest plain on earth for our occasions than
what they truly are. Quicken the mules then, for the love of the Blessed
Virgin!"
"Thou betrayest unnecessary, and, for one that had needs be cool,
indiscreet alarm, at the appearance of a little snow, friend Pierre,"
observed the Signer Grimaldi, as the mules drew near the guide, and
speaking with a little of the irony of a soldier who had steeled his
nerves by familiarity with danger. "Even we Italians, though less used to
the frosts than you of the mountains, are not so much disturbed by the
change, as thou, a trained guide of St. Bernard!"
"Reproach me as you will, Signore," said Pierre turning and pursuing his
way with increased diligence, though he did not entirely succeed in
concealing his resentment at an accusation which he knew to be unmerited,
"but quicken your pace; until you are better acquainted with the country
in which you journey, your words pass for empty breath in my ears. This is
no trifle of a cloak doubled about the person, or of balls rolled into
piles by the sport of children; but an affair of life or death. You are a
half league in the air, Signor Genoese, in the region of storms, where the
winds work their will, at times, as if infernal devils wore rioting to
cool themselves, and where the stoutest limbs and the firmest hearts are
brought but too often to see and confess their feebleness!"
The old man had uncovered his blanched locks in respect to the Italian, as
he uttered this energetic remonstrance, and when he ended, he walked on
with professional pride, as if disdaining to protect a brow that had
already weathered so many tempests among the mountains.
"Cover thyself, good Pierre, I pray thee:" urged the Genoese in a tone of
repentance. "I have shown the intemperance of a boy, and intemperance of a
quality that little becomes my years. Thou art the best judge of the
circumstances in which we are placed, and thou alone shalt lead us."
Pierre accepted the apology with a manly but respectful reverence,
continuing always to ascend with unremitted industry.
Ten gloomy and anxious minutes succeeded. During this time, the falling
snows came faster and in finer flakes, while, occasionally, there were
fearful intimations that the winds were about to rise. At the elevation
in which the travellers now found themselves, phenomena, that would
ordinarily be of little account, become the arbiters of fate. The escape
of the caloric from the human system, at the height of six or seven
thousand feet above the sea, and in the latitude of forty-six, is, under
the most favorable circumstances, frequently of itself the source of
inconvenience; but here were grave additional reasons to heighten the
danger. The absence of the sun's rays alone left a sense of chilling cold,
and a few hours of night were certain to bring frost, even at midsummer.
Thus it is that storms of trifling import in themselves gain power over
the human frame, by its reduced means of resistance, and when to this fact
is added the knowledge that the elements are far fiercer in their workings
in the upper than in the nether regions of the earth, the motives of
Pierre's concern will be better understood by the reader than they
probably wese by himself, though the honest guide had a long and severe
experience to supply the place of theory.
Men are rarely loquacious in danger. The timid recoil into themselves,
yielding most of their faculties to a tormenting imagination, that
augments the causes of alarm and diminishes the means of security, while
the firm of mind rally and condense their powers to the point necessary to
exertion. Such were the effects in the present instance, on those who
followed Pierre. A general and deep silence pervaded the party, each one
seeing their situation in the colors most suited to his particular habits
and character. The men, without an exception, were grave and earnest in
their efforts to force the mules forward; Adelheid became pale, but she
preserved her calmness by the sheer force of character; Christine was
trembling and dependent, though cheered by the presence of, and her
confidence in, Sigismund; while the attendants of the heiress of Willading
covered their heads, and followed their mistress with the blind faith in
their superiors that is apt to sustain people of their class in serious
emergencies.
Ten minutes sufficed entirely to change the aspect of the view. The frozen
element could not adhere to the iron-like and perpendicular faces of the
mountains, but the glens, and ravines, and valleys became as white as the
peak of Velan. Still Pierre continued his silent and upward march, in a
way to keep alive a species of trembling hope among those who depended so
helplessly upon his intelligence and faith. They wished to believe that
the snow was merely one of those common occurrences that were to be
expected on the summits of the Alps at this late season of the year, and
which were no more than so many symptoms of the known rigor of the
approaching winter. The guide himself was evidently disposed to lose no
time in explanation, and as the secret excitement stole over all his
followers, he no longer had cause to complain of the tardiness of their
movements. Sigismund kept near his sister and Adelheid, having a care that
their mules did not lag; while the other males performed the same
necessary office for the beasts ridden by the female domestics. In this
manner passed the few sombre minutes which immediately preceded the
disappearance of day. The heavens were no longer visible. In that
direction the eye saw only an endless succession of falling flakes, and it
was getting to be difficult to distinguish even the ramparts of rock that
bounded the irregular ravine in which they rode. They were known to be,
however, at no great distance from the path, which indeed occasionally
brushed their sides. At other moments they crossed rude, stony, mountain
heaths, if such a word can be applied to spots without the symbol or hope
of vegetation. The traces of the beasts that had preceded them, became
less and less apparent, though the trickling stream that came down from
the glaciers, and along which they had now journeyed-for hours, was
occasionally seen, as it was crossed in pursuing their winding way.
Pierre, though still confident that he held the true direction, alone knew
that this guide was not longer to be relied on; for, as they drew nearer
to the top of the mountains, the torrent gradually lessened both in its
force and in the volume of its water, separating into twenty small rills,
which came rippling from the vast bodies of snow that lay among the
different peaks above.
As yet, there had been no wind. The guide, as minute after minute passed
without bringing any change in this respect, ventured at last to advert to
the fact, cheering his companions by giving them reasons to hope that they
should yet reach the convent without any serious calamity. As if in
mockery of this opinion, the flakes of snow began to whirl in the air,
while the words were on his lips, and a blast came through the ravine,
that set the protection of cloaks and mantles at defiance. Notwithstanding
his resolution and experience, the stout-hearted Pierre suffered an
exclamation of despair to escape him, and he instantly stopped, in the
manner of a man who could no longer conceal the dread that had been
collecting in his bosom for the last interminable and weary hour.
Sigismund, as well as most of the men of the party, had dismounted a
little previously, with a view to excite warmth by exercise. The youth had
often traversed the mountains, and the cry no sooner reached his ear, than
he was at the side of him who uttered it.
"At what distance, are we still from the convent?" he demanded eagerly.
"There is more than a league of steep and stone path to mount, Monsieur le
Capitaine;" returned the disconsolate Pierre, in a tone that perhaps said
more than his words.
"This is not a moment for indecision. Remember that thou art not the
leader of a party of carriers with their beasts of burthen, but that there
are those with us, who are unused to exposure, and are feeble of body.
What is the distance from the last hamlet we passed?"
"Double that to the convent!"
Sigismund turned, and with the eye he made a silent appeal to the two old
nobles, as if to ask for advice or orders.
"It might indeed be better to return," observed the Signore Grimaldi, in
the way one utters a half-formed resolution. "This wind is getting to be
piercingly cutting, and the night is hard upon us. What thinkest thou,
Melchior; for, with Monsieur Sigismund, I am of opinion that there is
little time to lose."
"Signore, your pardon," hastily interrupted the guide. "I would not
undertake to cross the plain of the Velan an hour later, for all the
treasures of Einsideln and Loretto! The wind will have an infernal sweep
in that basin, which will soon be boiling like a pot, while here we shall
get, from time to time, the shelter of the rocks. The slightest mishap on
the open ground might lead us astray a league or more, and it would need
an hour to regain the course. The beasts too mount faster than they
descend, and with far more surety in the dark; and even when at the
village there is nothing fit for nobles, while the brave monks have all
that a king can need."
"Those who escape from these wild rocks need not be critical about their
fare, honest Pierre, when fairly housed. Wilt thou answer for our arrival
at the convent unharmed, and in reasonable time?"
"Signore, we are in the hands of God. The pious Augustines, I make no
doubt, are praying for all who are on the mountain at this moment; but
there is not a minute to lose. I ask no more than that none lose sight of
their companions, and that each exert his force to the utmost. We are not
far from the House of Refuge, and should the storm increase to a tempest,
as, to conceal the danger no longer, well may happen in this late month,
we will seek its shelter for a few hours."
This intelligence was happily communicated, for the certainty that there
was a place of safety within an attainable distance, had some such
cheering effect on the travellers as is produced on the mariner who finds
that the hazards of the gale are lessened by the accidental position of a
secure harbor under his lee. Repeating his admonitions for the party to
keep as close together as possible, and advising all who felt the sinister
effects of the cold on their limbs to dismount, and to endeavor to restore
the circulation by exercise, Pierre resumed his route.
But even the time consumed in this short conference had sensibly altered
the condition of things for the worse. The wind, which had no fixed
direction, being a furious current of the upper air diverted from its true
course by encountering the ragged peaks and ravines of the Alps, was now
whirling around them in eddies, now aiding their ascent by seeming to push
against their backs, and then returning in their faces with a violence
that actually rendered advance impossible. The temperature fell rapidly
several degrees, and the most vigorous of the party began to perceive the
benumbing influence of the chilling currents, at their lower extremities
especially, in a manner to excite serious alarm. Every precaution was used
to protect the females that tenderness could suggest; but though Adelheid,
who alone retained sufficient self-command to give an account of her
feelings, diminished the danger of their situation with the wish not to
alarm their companions uselessly, she could not conceal from herself the
horrible truth that the vital heat was escaping from her own body, with a
rapidity that rendered it impossible for her much longer to retain the use
of her faculties. Conscious of her own mental superiority over that of all
her female companions, a superiority which in such moments is even of more
account than bodily force, after a few minutes of silent endurance, she
checked her mule, and called upon Sigismund to examine the condition of
his sister and her maids, neither of whom had now spoken for some time.
This startling request was made at a moment when the storm appeared to
gather new force, and when it had become absolutely impossible to
distinguish even the whitened earth at twenty paces from the spot where
the party stood collected in a shivering group. The young soldier threw
open the cloaks and mantles in which Christine was enveloped, and the
half-unconscious girl sank on his shoulder, like a drowsy infant that was
willing to seek its slumbers in the arms of one it loved.
"Christine!--my sister!--my poor, my much-abused, angelic sister!"
murmured Sigismund, happily for his secret in a voice that only reached
the ears of Adelheid. "Awake! Christine; for the love of our excellent and
affectionate mother, exert thyself. Awake! Christine, in the name of God,
awake!"
"Awake, dearest Christine!" exclaimed Adelheid, throwing herself from the
saddle, and folding the smiling but benumbed girl to her bosom. "God
protect me from the pang of feeling that thy loss should be owing to my
wish to lead thee amid these cruel and inhospitable rocks! Christine, if
thou hast love or pity for me, awake!"
"Look to the maids!" hurriedly said Pierre, who found that he was fast
touching on one of those mountain catastrophes, of which, in the course of
his life, he had been the witness of a few of fearful consequences. "Look
to all the females, for he who now sleeps, dies!"
The muleteers soon stripped the two domestics of their outer coverings,
and it was immediately proclaimed that both were in imminent danger, one
having already lost all consciousness. A timely application of the flask
of Pierre, and the efforts of the muleteers, succeeded so far in restoring
life as to remove the grounds of immediate apprehension; though it was
apparent to the least instructed of them all, that half an hour more of
exposure would probably complete the fatal work that had so actively and
vigorously commenced. To add to the horror of this conviction, each member
of the party, not excepting the muleteers, was painfully conscious of the
escape of that vital warmth whose total flight was death.
In this strait all dismounted. They felt that the occasion was one of
extreme jeopardy, that nothing could save them but resolution, and that
every minute of time was getting to be of the last importance. Each
female, Adelheid included, was placed between two of the other sex, and,
supported in this manner, Pierre called loudly and in a manful voice for
the whole to proceed. The beasts were driven after them by one of the
muleteers.
The progress of travellers, feeble as Adelheid and her companions, on a
stony path of very uneven surface, and of a steep ascent, the snow
covering the feet, and the tempest cutting their faces, was necessarily
slow, and to the last degree toilsome. Still, the exertion increased the
quickness of the blood, and, for a short time, there was an appearance of
recalling those who most suffered to life. Pierre, who still kept his post
with the hardihood of a mountaineer, and the fidelity of a Swiss, cheered
them on with his voice, continuing to raise the hope that the place of
refuge was at hand.
At this instant, when exertion was most needed, and when, apparently, all
were sensible of its importance and most disposed to make it, the muleteer
charged with the duty of urging on the line of beasts deserted his trust,
preferring to take his chance of regaining the village by descending the
mountain, to struggle uselessly, and at a pace so slow, to reach the
convent. The man was a stranger in the country, who had been
adventitiously employed for this expedition, and was unconnected with
Pierre by any of those ties which are the best pledges of unconquerable
faith, when the interests of self press hard upon our weaknesses. The
wearied beasts, no longer driven, and indisposed to toil, first stopped,
then turned aside to avoid the cutting air and the ascent, and were soon
wandering from the path it was so vitally necessary to keep.
As soon as Pierre was informed of the circumstance, he eagerly issued an
order to collect the stragglers without delay, and at every hazard.
Benumbed, bewildered, and unable to see beyond a few yards, this
embarrassing duty was not easily performed. One after another of the party
joined in the pursuit, for all the effects of the travellers were on the
beasts; and after some ten minutes of delay, blended with an excitement
which helped to quicken the blood and to awaken the faculties of even the
females, the mules were all happily regained. They were secured to each
other head and tail, in the manner so usual in the droves of these
animals, and Pierre turned to resume the order of the march. But on
seeking the path, it was not to be found! Search was made on every side,
and yet none could meet with the smallest of its traces. Broken, rough
fragments of rock, were all that rewarded the most anxious investigation;
and after a few precious minutes uselessly wasted, they all assembled
around the guide, as if by common consent, to seek his counsel. The truth
was no longer to be concealed--the party was lost!
Chapter XXIII.
Let no presuming railer tax
Creative wisdom, as if aught was form'd
In vain, or not for admirable ends.
Thomson.
So long as we possess the power to struggle, hope is the last feeling to
desert the human mind. Men are endowed with every gradation of courage,
from the calm energy of reflection, which is rendered still more effective
by physical firmness, to the headlong precipitation of reckless spirit:
from the resolution that grows more imposing and more respectable as there
is greater occasion for its exercise, to the fearful and ill-directed
energies of despair. But no description with the pen can give the reader a
just idea of the chill that comes over the heart when accidental causes
rob us, suddenly and without notice, of those resources on which we have
been habitually accustomed to rely. The mariner without his course or
compass loses his audacity and coolness, though the momentary danger be
the same; the soldier will fly, if you deprive him of his arms; and the
hunter of our own forests who has lost his landmarks, is transformed from
the bold and determined foe of its tenants, into an anxious and dependent
fugitive, timidly seeking the means of retreat. In short, the customary
associations of the mind being rudely and suddenly destroyed, we are made
to feel that reason, while it elevates us so far above the brutes as to
make man their lord and governor, becomes a quality less valuable than
instinct, when the connecting link in its train of causes and effects is
severed.
It was no more than a natural consequence of his greater experience, that
Pierre Dumont understood the horrors of their present situation far better
than any with him. It is true, there yet remained enough light to enable
him to pick his way over the rocks and stones, but he had sufficient
experience to understand that there was less risk in remaining stationary
than in moving; for, while there was only one direction that led towards
the Refuge, all the rest would conduct them to a greater distance from the
shelter, which was now the only hope. On the other hand, a very few
minutes of the intense cold, and of the searching wind to which they were
exposed, would most probably freeze the currents of life in the feebler of
those intrusted to his care.
"Hast thou aught to advise?" asked Melchior de Willading, folding Adelheid
to his bosom, beneath his ample cloak, and communicating, with a father's
love, a small portion of the meagre warmth that still remained in his own
aged frame to that of his drooping daughter--"canst thou bethink thee of
nothing, that may be done, in this awful strait?"
"If the good monks have been active--" returned the wavering Pierre. "I
fear me that the dogs have not yet been exercised, on the paths, this
season!"
"Has it then come to this! Are our lives indeed dependent on the uncertain
sagacity of brutes!"
"Mein Herr, I would bless the Virgin, and her holy Son, if it were so! But
I fear this storm has been so sudden and unexpected, that we may not even
hope for their succor."
Melchior groaned. He folded his child still nearer to his heart, while the
athletic Sigismund shielded his drooping sister, as the fowl shelters its
young beneath the wing.
"Delay is death," rejoined the Signor Grimaldi. "I have heard of muleteers
that have been driven to kill their beasts, that shelter and warmth might
be found in their entrails."
"The alternative is horrible!" interrupted Sigismund. "Is return
impossible? By always descending, we must, in time reach the village
below."
"That time would be fatal," answered Pierre. "I know of only one resource
that remains. If the party will keep together, and answer my shouts I will
make another effort to find the path."
This proposal was gladly accepted, for energy and hope go hand-in-hand,
and the guide was about to quit the group, when he felt the strong grasp
of Sigismund on his arm.
"I will be thy companion," said the soldier firmly.
"Thou hast not done me justice, young man," answered Pierre, with severe
reproach in his manner. "Had I been base enough to desert my trust, these
limbs and this strength are yet sufficient to carry me safely down the
mountain; but though a guide of the Alps may freeze like another man, the
last throb of his heart will be in behalf of those he serves!"
"A thousand pardons brave old man--a thousand pardons; still, will I be
thy companion; the search that is conducted by two will be more likely to
succeed, than that on which thou goes alone."
The offended Pierre, who liked the spirit of the youth as much as he
disliked his previous suspicions, met the apology frankly. He extended his
hand and forgot the feelings, that, even amid the tempests of those wild
mountains, were excited by a distrust of his honesty. After this short
concession to the ever-burning, though smothered volcano, of human
passion, they left the group together, in order to make a last search for
their course.
The snow by this time was many inches deep, and as the road was at best
but a faint bridle-path that could scarcely be distinguished by day-light
from the debris which strewed the ravines, the undertaking would have been
utterly hopeless, had not Pierre known that there was the chance of still
meeting with some signs of the many mules that daily went up and down the
mountain. The guide called to the muleteers, who answered his cries every
minute, for so long as they kept within the sound of each other's voices,
there was no danger of their becoming entirely separated. But, amid the
hollow roaring of the wind, and the incessant pelting of the storm, it was
neither safe nor practicable to venture far asunder. Several little stony
knolls were ascended and descended, and a rippling rill was found, but
without bringing with it any traces of the path. The heart of Pierre began
to chill with the decreasing; warmth of his body, and the firm old man,
overwhelmed with his responsibility while his truant thoughts would
unbidden recur to those whom he had left in his cottage at the foot of the
mountain, gave way at last to his emotions in a paroxysm of grief,
wringing his hands, weeping and calling loudly on God for succor. This
fearful evidence of their extremity worked upon the feelings of Sigismund
until they were wrought up nearly to frenzy. His great physical force
still sustained him, and in an access of energy that was fearfully allied
to madness, he rushed forward into the vortex of snow and hail, as if
determined to leave all to the Providence of God, disappearing from the
eyes of his companion. This incident recalled the guide to his senses. He
called earnestly on the thoughtless youth to return. No answer was given,
and Pierre hastened back to the motionless and shivering party, in order
to unite all their voices in a last effort to be heard. Cry upon cry was
raised, but each shout was answered merely by the hoarse rushing of the
winds.