I put up at the same inn, and slept in the
same bedroom which was occupied by poor Didier who was put to death at
Grenoble for having raised the standard of liberty. He was surprized here
in bed by the Carabiniere Reali of the Sardinian government, those
satellites of despotism; and according to the barbarous principles laid
down by the crowned heads, delivered over to the French authorities. I
observed a great many cretins in this valley.
SUZA, 10th August.
On the morning of the 8th August two vetturini passed by the inn at St
Jean de Maurienne, and I engaged a place in one of them, as far as Turin.
We arrived at the village of Modena in the evening. The landscape is much
the same as what we have hitherto passed, but the climate is considerably
colder, from the land being more elevated. Hitherto I had suffered much
inconvenience from the heat. The next morning we reached Lans-le-Bourg, the
last town of Savoy lying at the foot of Mount Cenis.
After breakfast we began the ascent of Mont Cenis, and I made the whole way
from Lans-le-Bourg to the Hospice of Mont Cenis, that is, the whole
ascent, a distance of twenty-five Italian miles, on foot.
