Yet it pleased us little then, for it barred our progress northward as completely as would a hostile army.
Our depth of disappointment at facing this barrier was beyond expression.

We could but stand in silence, gazing upon the broad, impassable sheet of water, blocking further advance.

De Noyan was earliest to recover power of speech.
"_Le Diable_!" he swore, half unconsciously.

"This cursed place is surely damned! Yet it has some consolation to my mind, for that will drive us backward into the lowlands, out of this demon-haunted defile." "Your judgment is right," I returned gravely enough, not unrelieved myself by the thought.

"There is no other course open to us.