CHAPTER VIII
MY CONTINENTAL TOUR: SWITZERLAND
(1858)
You're far, yet to my heart you're nearest near;
Absent, yet present in my sprite you appear.
Alf Laylah wa Laylah
(Burton's "Arabian Nights").
WE left Venice one evening in early April at half-past nine, after six weeks' stay, and travelled by the night train to Padua. We then went through a terrible experience. We started on a twenty-four hours' drive without a stoppage, without a crumb of bread or a drop of water. We drove through Milan at 8.30 in the morning, and after leaving it we got a magnificent view of the Alps, and had a very troublesome frontier. At last we came to Turin. We went on in a train with a diligence on it, and arrived at Susa, our last Italian town. Here the diligence was taken off the train. We had fourteen mules and two horses, and began to ascend Mont Cenis. These were the days when there were no trains there. Some of us with the conductor climbed up the shorter cuts (like ascending a chimney) until dark, and met the diligence. We had a splendid view. But what a night! The snow
