The party was enlarged by the presence of four maids and a foreign gentleman.  This last-mentioned personage was small in stature, with a very handsome face and very brilliant eyes.  His frame, though slight, was sinewy and well knit, and he looked like an Italian.  He had come on alone, and had passed the night at the station-house.

A track about six feet wide had been cut out through the snow, and over this they passed.  The snow was soft, and the horses sank deep, so that progress was slow.  Nor was the journey without the excitement of apparent danger.  At times before them and behind them there would come a low, rumbling sound, and they would see a mass of snow and ice rushing down some neighboring slope.  Some of these fell on the road, and more than once they had to quit their sleds and wait for the drivers to get them over the heaps that had been formed across their path.  Fortunately, however, none of these came near them; and Minnie Fay, who at first had screamed at intervals of about five minutes, gradually gained confidence, and at length changed her mood so completely that she laughed and clapped her little hands whenever she saw the rush of snow and ice.  Thus slowly, yet in safety, they pushed onward, and at length reached the little village of Simplon.  Here they waited an hour to warm themselves, lunch, and change horses.  At the end of that time they set out afresh, and once more they were on their winding way.

They had now the gratification of finding that they were descending the slope, and of knowing that this descent took them every minute further from the regions of snow, and nearer to the sunny plains of Italy.  Minnie in particular gave utterance to her delight:  and now, having lost every particle of fear, she begged to be allowed to drive in the foremost sled.  Ethel had been in it thus far, but she willingly changed places with Minnie, and thus the descent was made.

The sleds and their occupants were now arranged in the following order: 

First, Minnie Fay alone with the driver.

Second, Mrs. Willoughby and Ethel.

Third, the Dowager and her maid.

Fourth, the three other maids.

Fifth, the luggage.

After these five sleds, containing our party, came another with the foreign gentleman.

Each of these sleds had a driver to itself.

In this order the party went, until at length they came to the Gorge of Gondo.  This is a narrow valley, the sides of which rise up very abruptly, and in some places precipitously, to a great height.  At the bottom flows a furious torrent, which boils and foams and roars as it forces its impetuous way onward over fallen masses of rock and trees and boulders, at one time gathering into still pools, at other times roaring into cataracts.  Their road had been cut out on the side of the mountain, and the path had been cleared away here many feet above the buried road; and as they wound along the slope they could look up at the stupendous heights above them, and down at the abyss beneath them, whose white snow-covering was marked at the bottom by the black line of the roaring torrent.  The smooth slope of snow ran down as far as the eye could reach at a steep angle, filling up all crevices, with here and there a projecting rock or a dark clump of trees to break its surface.