The higher we rose, the more intense became the excitement.  The slope eased off, at length we could be detached, and Croz and I, dashed away, ran a neck-and-neck race, which ended in a dead heat.  At 1:40 P.M., the world was at our feet, and the Matterhorn was conquered!

The others arrived.  Croz now took the tent-pole, and planted it in the highest snow.  “Yes,” we said, “there is the flag-staff, but where is the flag?” “Here it is,” he answered, pulling off his blouse and fixing it to the stick.  It made a poor flag, and there was no wind to float it out, yet it was seen all around.  They saw it at Zermatt—­at the Riffel—­in the Val Tournanche... .

We remained on the summit for one hour—­

One crowded hour of glorious life.

It passed away too quickly, and we began to prepare for the descent.

Hudson and I consulted as to the best and safest arrangement of the party.  We agreed that it was best for Croz to go first, and Hadow second; Hudson, who was almost equal to a guide in sureness of foot, wished to be third; Lord Douglas was placed next, and old Peter, the strongest of the remainder, after him.  I suggested to Hudson that we should attach a rope to the rocks on our arrival at the difficult bit, and hold it as we descended, as an additional protection.  He approved the idea, but it was not definitely decided that it should be done.  The party was being arranged in the above order while I was sketching the summit, and they had finished, and were waiting for me to be tied in line, when some one remembered that our names had not been left in a bottle.  They requested me to write them down, and moved off while it was being done.

A few minutes afterward I tied myself to young Peter, ran down after the others, and caught them just as they were commencing the descent of the difficult part.  Great care was being taken.  Only one man was moving at a time; when he was firmly planted the next advanced, and so on.  They had not, however, attached the additional rope to rocks, and nothing was said about it.  The suggestion was not made for my own sake, and I am not sure that it ever occurred to me again.  For some little distance we two followed the others, detached from them, and should have continued so had not Lord Douglas asked me, about 3 P.M., to tie on to old Peter, as he feared, he said, that Taugwalder would not be able to hold his ground if a slip occurred.

A few minutes later, a sharp-eyed lad ran into the Monte Rosa Hotel, at Zermatt, saying that he had seen an avalanche fall from the summit of the Matterhorn onto the Matterhorn glacier.  The boy was reproved for telling idle stories; he was right, nevertheless, and this was what he saw.