My companions were aroused with difficulty: the Colonel, poor old gentleman, to a sort of permanent dream, in which you could say of him only that he was very deaf and anxiously polite; the Major still maudlin drunk.

We had a dish of tea by the fireside, and then issued like criminals into the scathing cold of the night.

For the weather had in the meantime changed.

Upon the cessation of the rain, a strict frost had succeeded.

The moon, being young, was already near the zenith when we started, glittered everywhere on sheets of ice, and sparkled in ten thousand icicles.