I felt the cold very sensibly in the journey from Florence to Milan and
Turin.
There is not a colder country in Europe than Lombardy in the winter.
The vicinity of the Alps contributes much to this; and the houses being
exceedingly large and having no stoves it is quite impossible that the
fireplaces can give heat sufficient to warm the rooms. I started from Turin
on the morning of the 9th December in the French diligence bound to Lyon,
but taking my place only as far as Chambery. In the diligence were a
Piedmontese Colonel who had served under Napoleon, and a young Scotchman, a
relation of Lord Minto. The latter was fond of excursions in ice and snow
and on our arrival at Suza he proposed to me to start from there two or
three hours before the diligence and to ascend Mont Cenis on foot as far as
the Hospice and I was mad enough to accede to the proposal, for it
certainly was little less than madness in a person of my chilly habits and
susceptibility of cold and who had passed several years within the tropics
to scale the Alps on foot in the middle of December and to walk 24 miles in
snow and ice at one o'clock in the morning, which was the hour at which we
started. I was well clad in flannel and I went thro' the journey valiantly
and in high spirits and without suffering much from the cold till within
five miles of the Hospice, when a heavy snow storm came on; it then began
to look a little ugly and but for Napoleon's grand chausses we were lost.
We struggled on three miles further in the snow before we fell in with a
maison de refuge. We knocked there and nobody answered. We then
determined coute que coute to push on to the Hospice which we knew
could not be more than two miles distant; indeed it was much more advisable
so to do than to run the risk of being frozen by remaining two or three
hours in the cold air till the diligence should come up. In standing still
I began to feel the cold bitterly; so in spite of the snow storm, we pushed
on and arrived at the inn at Mont-Cenis at five in the morning. We rubbed
our hands and faces well with snow and took care not to approach the fire
for several minutes, fortifying ourselves in the interim with a glass of
brandy. We then had some coffee made and laid ourselves down to sleep by
the side of an enormous fire until the diligence arrived, which made its
appearance at eight o'clock. The passengers stopped to breakfast and the
Scotchman proposed to me to make the descent of Lans-le-Bourg also on foot;
but I was quite satisfied with the prowess I had already exhibited and
declined the challenge. He however set off alone and thus performed the
entire passage of Mont Cenis on foot.
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