THE “ MAUVAIS PAS.” 23]

never would again, as none, but from sheer neces-
sity, would ever think of taking advantage of it.
In the course of rather more than an hour’s sharp
ascent we attained a more level surface in the
bosom of a thick forest of pine and underwood,
fronted, as far as I could guess, from occasional
glimpses through gaps and intervals, by a gray dull
curtain of bare rock.

““We are approaching the mauvais pas, sail
one of the guides.

“*Ts it as rough as this?’ said I, floundering, as
U was, through hollows of loose stones and bushes.

“Oh no; it is as smooth as a floor, was the reply.

“In a few minutes we shall be on the pas,’ said
the other, as we began to descend on the eastern
declivity of the ridge we had been mounting for
the last hour. And then, for the first time, I saw
below me the valleys of the Drance spread forth
like a map, and that it required but half a dozen
steps at most to have cleared every impediment to
my descending amongst them, in an infinitely
shorter time than I had expended in mounting to
the elevated spot from whence I looked down upon
them. And then, too, for the first time certain
misgivings as to the propriety of going further,
and a shrewd guess as to the real nature of the
Mauvaris Pas, flashed across me, in one of those
sudden heart-searching thrills so perfectly defined