Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/235

Rh opposite, and a young Norwegian countryman of ours was to accompany us. Every thing seemed arranged in the best possible manner. A mistake in the hour, however, caused our young friend to be after his time, and Jenny and I, therefore, went to the place alone. Finding the gallery already fully occupied, we got into a passage, whence there was no exit, between the wall and the gallery, and which was becoming more and more thronged with people, who crushed through the guard, and believed, like ourselves, that they could here find room. The press, however, soon became terrific, and increased every moment; so that movement was no longer possible, one was crushed, and even lifted from one's feet, by the urgent crowd which, like a flock of sheep, blindly thrust themselves together. Jenny became separated from me; I could no longer see her, and there was a smell as of burning clothes. I uttered a cry, with the design of making the guard aware of the irrational crowding into this “cul de sac;” but my cry was lost in the noise of the throng. Never since my excursion across the Mer de Glace with Louise C——, on Chamouni, have I experienced such anxiety as I did now. At that moment I heard a manly voice exclaim in French:

“Mademoiselle pleure! Qu'est il arrive? Qu'est-ce qu'il-y-a?”

Jenny, in a fit of hysterical weeping, leant against the shoulder of a stout gentleman, who good-naturedly, let her support herself in this manner; and, in the mean time roused the attention of the Commander of the Guard. I now perceived him, and saw her also at no great distance from me, I besought of him to