On the second day of the journey, I espied, upon waking very early in the morning, the smoke of a great fire a quarter of a mile away; only a rocky point separated us from a savage war-party. Without losing time, we saddled our horses and started at full gallop; at last we gained the hill, and crossing the ravines and the dry bed of a torrent, we reached the top without being Percéived. That day we made forty to fifty miles without a halt, and did not camp until two hours after sunset, for fear of the savages coming upon our trail and following us. The same fear prevented our lighting a fire, and so we had to do without supper. I rolled myself in my blanket and stretched my
self on the sod, commending myself to the good God. My grenadier, braver than I, was soon snoring like a steam engine in full swing; running through all the notes of the chromatic scale, he closed each movement of his prelude with a deep sigh, by way of modulation. As for me, I turned and rolled, but spent a sleepless night; what they call a nuit blanche. At dawn nest morning we were already under way; we had to use the greatest precautions, because the country we had to traverse was most dangerous. Towards noon, a fresh cause for alarm; a buffalo had been killed, not more than two hours before, in a spot by which we had to pass; his tongue, marrowbones and some other delicate morsels had been taken. We trembled at this sight, thinking the enemy was not far away; but we ought rather to have thanked the Lord, who had thus prepared food for our evening meal. We turned in the opposite direction to the tracks of the savages, and that night we camped among rocks that are the resort of bears apd tigers. There I had a good sleep. This time the music of my- companion's snoring did not trouble me.
We always took the road early in the morning; but it was to confront fresh dangers each time, to meet here and there recent foot-prints of men and horses. Towards ten o'clock we came to an abandoned camp of forty lodges; the fires were not yet out; but luckily we saw no one. At