scarfs, were thrown across the breach, and the dauntless corps, the greatest part of which had by this time fallen into the precipice they defended, was overpowered by numbers, rushing desperately over the frightful chasm, the crevices of which were heaped with the bodies of the slain. The object of Suwarrow was to form a junction with the Russian and Austrian Forces, then encamped in the neighbourhood of Zurich. But they were defeated by Massena, at this critical juncture, and the Russian Veteran was fain to throw his artillery into the lakes, and make good his retreat, across ridges, till then deemed impassable to any thing but goats. After After crossing the bridge, this singular road assumes a zig-zag course, and enters a subterraneous passage, cut through the solid rock; from whose midnight darkness you gladly emerge upon broad daylight, in the valley of Urseren; an opening scene of pastoral tranquillity, in which at a little distance appears the village of Andermat, sheltered by a ridge of firs, the only trees that will grow in so elevated and confined a situation. The vale of Urseren is 4000 feet above the level of the sea, and it is probably the highest spot in the world, inhabited by twelve hundred people. They would be totally separated from the rest of mankind, if it was not for the winding mule-path, which has here crossed the Alps ever since the days of Cæsar Cæsar, who is said to have first surmounted the stupendous barrier. This is one of the easiest, and most frequented passes into Italy, and it is practicable, at all times of the year, though sometimes under drifts of snow, through which the neighbouring Peasants are constantly employed to keep the road open. We had no sooner recovered from the fatigue we had undergone, than we set out on an excursion into the country of the Grisons. The first village of which, though but twelve miles distant, is so completely separated from Andermat, by rocks and mountains, piled upon one another, till they literally reach the clouds, that the Inhabitants speak a different lan guage, guage, which preserves to this day a number of latin words and phrases, received from their Roman Conquerors two thousand years ago. From the top of a mountain on our way, between snowy summits, rising like a boundless ocean-wave beyond wave, we had a bird's-eye view of -Those hilly regions, where, embrac'd In peaceful vales, the happy Grisons dwell,* under the characteristic, or endearing, appellations, of the Grey League,—the League of Ten Jurisdictions—or the League of God's House. * Thomson. Such Such is here the transparent purity of the air, that the sky assumes a peculiar blue. Immense glaciers glittered around us in sparkling sunshine, and from the nearest of them we felt the wind so sharp and piercing that we were insensible of the least fatigue, though we had been clambering for hours up frightful preci pices. But my B—— had unfortunately sprained her ancle, in endeavouring to spare her Supporter, and before we could reach Tavetch, in the valley of Sopra Selva, she was hardly able to lift her right foot from the ground. At the Inn, or rather ale-house, which was not distinguished-even by a bush, from the private houses of the village, we found a jolly Benedictine from the Abbey of Dissentis, a lordly monastery |