“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.