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Blackened skeleton arms of wood by the wayside pointed upward

to the convent as if the ghosts of former travellers overwhelmed by the

snow haunted the scene of their distress Icicle-hung caves and cellars

built for refuges from sudden storms, were like sowreaths andwind; and snow, the besetting danger of the

ainst which all its defences were taken, drifted sharply

down The file of mules, jaded by their day's work, turned and wound slowly

up the deep ascent; the foreuide on foot, in his

broad-bri a uide conversed There was no

speaking aue of the

journey, and a new sensation of a catching in the breath, partly as if

they had just eed from very clear crisp water, and partly as if they

had been sobbing, kept theht on the suh

the snow and uides called to theheads, the travellers' tongues were loosened, and in a

sudden burst of slipping, cli,

they arrived at the convent door