Taking the pole from the hands of Hansel, I let myself glide over the edge of the cliff, and the next moment hung in empty space.  After being lowered about eighty feet, I found myself on a level with the crevice before mentioned, and gave the preconcerted signal for arresting my downward progress.  Owing, however, to a beetling crag or boulder which overhung the recess, I was still at a distance of ten or twelve feet horizontally from the goal.  Fixing the boathook into a convenient indentation of the rock, I gradually pulled myself in till I reached the face of the wall.  Then leaving the plank, I crawled up an inclined slab of rock which led to the actual crevice, until I was stopped by a barrier of dry sticks about two feet in height.  Raising myself on my knees, I peered into the oval-shaped eyrie, and saw perched up at the farther side two splendid young golden eagles.

[Illustration:  “Fixing the boat-hook into an indentation, I pulled myself in.”]

It is a very rare occurrence to find two young eagles in one eyrie.  These, though only four or five weeks old, were formidable birds, measuring considerably over six feet in the span, and displaying beaks and talons of imposing size.  It took some time to capture and pinion these powerful and refractory ornithological specimens, whose loud, discordant screams caused me several times to glance involuntarily over my shoulder at the strip of horizon visible, to assure myself that the old eagles were not swooping down to the rescue.  I was in the more haste to leave the eyrie that the stench which emanated from the remains of numerous victims strewn in and about it was something terrific.  These relics, which I had the curiosity to count, consisted of a half-devoured carcass of a chamois, three pairs of chamois’ horns and the corresponding bones of the animals, the skeleton of a goat picked clean, the remains of an Alpine hare, and the head and neck of a fawn.

[Illustration:  Entering the eyrie.]

The canvas bag being too small to contain both the eaglets, I was obliged to hang one of them to my belt, after tying my handkerchief round his beak.  The game secured, I crept cautiously down the slab to the plank, and fixing the hook of my pole in the indentation of which I had made use in drawing myself in, I gave the preconcerted two jerks with the signal-line.  Now occurred the first of a series of accidents which came near resulting fatally to the whole party.  Contrary to my strict injunctions, the men hauling the rope gave a sudden and violent pull, wrenching the pole from my grasp, and communicating to the plank a motion like that of a pendulum, which sent me flying out into space, with the immediate prospect of being dashed by the retrograde swing against the solid wall of rock.  Happily, I preserved my presence of mind, and grasped instantly the only chance of escape.