Even more beautiful
than the summit of Mont Blanc itself, with its rounded contours, were
the steep, gray, rocky peaks, with ice in every furrow, that are called
_l'Aiguille du Dru_. These mountains, which as far as the eye could
range seemed to be all the same height, although they varied from 7,000
to 14,800 feet, stretched for miles around the horizon.
The ice grotto here was very different from the sky-blue glacier grotto
into which I had wandered two years earlier at Grindelwald. Here the ice
mass was so immensely high that not the slightest peep of daylight
penetrated through it into the excavated archway that led into the ice.
It was half-dark inside, and the only light proceeded from a row of
little candles stuck into the crevices of the rock. The ice was jet
black in colour, the light gleaming with a golden sheen from all the
rounded projections and jagged points. It was like the gilt
ornamentation on a velvet pall.
When I returned from Chamounix to Geneva, the proprietor of the hotel
was standing in the doorway and shouted to me: "The whole of the French
army, with the Emperor, has been taken prisoner at Sedan!"--
"Impossible!" I exclaimed. "It is quite certain," he replied; "it was in
the German telegrams, and so far there has not come a single unveracious
telegram from the Germans.
Pages:
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474