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Over the bronze door which leads to the crypt, are inscribed the following words, quoted from the Emperor's will: "Je desire que mes cendres reposent sur les bordes de la Seine, au milieu de ce peuple Francais que j'ai tant aime." "I wish my remains to be laid on the banks of the Seine, amongst that French people whom I have loved so much." P. Simond.
I stretched my hands toward him, and said: "Simond, we must do it." One thing alone I felt could defeat us: the usual time of the ascent had been more than doubled, the day was already far spent, and if the ascent would throw our subsequent descent into night it could not be contemplated. We now faced the Mur, which was by no means so bad as we had expected.
After supper Simond went out to inspect the glacier, and was observed by Huxley, as twilight fell, in a state of deep contemplation beside a crevasse. Gradually the stars appeared, but as yet no moon.
A Frenchman, about forty years ago M. Simond, in his "Travels" mentions accidentally the following hideous scene as one steadily observed and watched by himself in chivalrous France not very long before the French Revolution: A peasant was plowing; and the team that drew his plow was a donkey and a woman. Both were regularly harnessed; both pulled alike.
He thus led the way to the base of the Mur de la Côte, the thought of which had so long cast a gloom upon us; here we left our rope behind us, and while pausing I asked Simond whether he did not feel a desire to go to the summit. "Surely," was his reply, "but! " Our guide's mind was so constituted that the "but" seemed essential to its peace.
It was white, her lips trembled, and in her eyes Chayne saw again the look of terror which he had hoped was gone forever. "Oh, please," she whispered. "Yes," he replied, and he turned again to Simond. "At two o'clock then. My wife will go, so bring a mule. We can leave it at the Montanvert." The guides tramped from the garden. Chayne led his wife toward the hotel, slipping his arm through hers.
Simond could reach this snow with his long-handled ax; he beat it down to give it rigidity, but it was exceedingly tender, and as he worked at it he continued to express his fears that it would not bear us.
And Droz, monsieur, is the man for you. He is quick, as quick as you and Simond. The three of you together will go well. As for to-morrow, you will need no one else. But if you do, monsieur, I will go with you." "There is no need, Michel," replied Chayne, gratefully, and thereupon Sylvia plucked him by the sleeve. "I must go with you to-morrow, Hilary," she pleaded, wistfully.
Here the thought occurred to me that Simond, having been only once before to the top of the mountain, might not be quite clear about the route; the glacier, however, changes within certain limits from year to year, so that a general knowledge was all that could be expected, and we trusted to our own muscles to make good any mistake in the way of guidance.
At two o'clock they came out from the hotel in the twilight of the morning. There were two men there. "Ah! you have come to see us off, Michel," said Chayne. "No, monsieur, I bring my mule," said Revailloud, with a smile, and he helped Sylvia to mount it. "To lead mules to the Montanvert is not that my business? Simond has a rope," he added, as he saw Chayne sling a coil across his shoulder.
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