Adrian had gone first. I saw him, while I was detained by the loosening of

a girth, struggling with the upward path, seemingly more difficult than any

we had yet passed. He reached the top, and the dark outline of his figure

stood in relief against the sky. He seemed to behold something unexpected

and wonderful; for, pausing, his head stretched out, his arms for a moment

extended, he seemed to give an All Hail! to some new vision. Urged by

curiosity, I hurried to join him. After battling for many tedious minutes

with the precipice, the same scene presented itself to me, which had wrapt

him in extatic wonder.

Nature, or nature's favourite, this lovely earth, presented her most

unrivalled beauties in resplendent and sudden exhibition. Below, far, far

below, even as it were in the yawning abyss of the ponderous globe, lay the

placid and azure expanse of lake Leman; vine-covered hills hedged it in,

and behind dark mountains in cone-like shape, or irregular cyclopean wall,

served for further defence. But beyond, and high above all, as if the

spirits of the air had suddenly unveiled their bright abodes, placed in

scaleless altitude in the stainless sky, heaven-kissing, companions of the

unattainable ether, were the glorious Alps, clothed in dazzling robes of

light by the setting sun. And, as if the world's wonders were never to be

exhausted, their vast immensities, their jagged crags, and roseate

painting, appeared again in the lake below, dipping their proud heights

beneath the unruffled waves--palaces for the Naiads of the placid waters.

Towns and villages lay scattered at the foot of Jura, which, with dark

ravine, and black promontories, stretched its roots into the watery expanse

beneath. Carried away by wonder, I forgot the death of man, and the living

549

The Last Man