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Richard and Monsieur Le Quoi, attended by Benjamin, proceeded to the academy, by a foot-path that was trodden in the snow, across the grounds of the Mansion-House, the Judge, his daughter, the Divine, and the Major, took a more circuitous route to the same place, through the streets of the village.

The moon had risen, during the time that our travellers were housed, and its orb was shedding a flood of light over the dark outline of pines, which crowned the eastern mountain. In other climates, the sky would have been thought clear and lucid for a noontide. The stars twinkled in the heavens, like the last faint glimmerings of distant fire, so much were they obscured by the overwhelming radiance of the atmosphere; the rays from the moon striking upon the smooth white surfaces of the lake and fields, reflecting upwards a light that was brightened by the spotless colour of the immense bodies of snow, which covered the earth.