I descended on foot, the road being too precipitous in places to render even a char pleasant.  On rejoining the domestic circle, we took boat and pulled towards the little chateau-looking dwelling, on a narrow verdant peninsula, which, as you may remember, had first caught my eye on approaching Vevey, as the very spot that a hunter of the picturesque would like for a temporary residence.  The distance was about a mile, and, the condition of the house excepted, a nearer view confirmed all our first impressions.  It had been a small chateau, and was called Glayrole.  It stands near the hamlet of St. Saphorin, which, both Francois and Jean maintain, produces the best wines of Vaud, and, though now reduced to the condition of a dilapidated farm-house, has still some remains of its ancient state.  There is a ceiling, in the Ritter Saal, that can almost vie with that of the castle of Habsburg, though it is less smoked.  The road, more resembling the wheel-track of a lawn than a highway, runs quite near the house on one side, while the blue and limpid lake washes the foot of the little promontory.

LETTER XXI.

Embark in the Winkelried.—­Discussion with an Englishman.—­The Valais.—­Free Trade.—­The Drance.—­Terrible Inundation.—­Liddes.—­Mountain Scenery.—­A Mountain Basin.—­Dead-houses.—­Melancholy Spectacle.—­Approach of Night.—­Desolate Region.—­Convent of the Great St. Bernard.—­Our Reception there.—­Unhealthiness of the Situation.—­The Superior.—­Conversation during Supper.—­Coal-mine on the Mountain.—­Night in the Convent.

Dear ——­,

After spending a few more days in the same delightful and listless enjoyments, my friend C——­ came over from Lausanne, and we embarked in the Winkelried, on the afternoon of the 25th September, as she hove-to off our mole, on her way up the lake.  We anchored off Villeneuve in less than an hour, there being neither port, nor wharf, nor mole at that place.  In a few minutes we were in a three-horse conveyance, called a diligence, and were trotting across the broad meadows of the Rhone towards Bex, where we found one of our American families, the T——­s, on their way to Italy.

C——­ and myself ate some excellent quails for supper in the public room.  An Englishman was taking the same repast, at another table, near us, and he inquired for news, wishing particularly to know the state of things about Antwerp.  This led to a little conversation, when I observed that, had the interests of France been consulted at the revolution of 1830, Belgium would have been received into the kingdom.  Our Englishman grunted at this, and asked me what Europe would have said to it.  My answer was, that when both parties were agreed, I did not see what Europe had to do with the matter; and that, at all events, the right Europe could have to interfere was founded in might; and such was the state of south-western Germany, Italy, Savoy, Spain, and