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the hut the whole party of Cagots were huddled in a pile of skins indiscriminately seeking warmth from each other. A huge mastif and myself shared the chimney, nor was I displeased at having him for a bed fellow in preference to anything human I saw around me.

The next morning before daylight I was out, seeking the relief of the cold fresh ar from the smoke filled atmosphere of the hut.

The snow was still falling thickly, the little plateau on which we were, was literally enclosed by walls of snow. Ingress or Egress was alike impracticable. The morning dawned without a prospect of relief. The leaden murky air seemed laden with snow, the fall of which in steady flakes was uninterrupted by a breath of wind. Everywhere around, and in startling propinquity resounded the howling of wolves driven to the enclosures by extremity of hunger. When Miguel made his appearance accompanied by one of our hosts, they at once pronounced our departure impossible for that day. We therefore made up our minds to pass it with our present entertainers.

One of the men was dispatched to the nearest hut for a supply of black bread, without which he found the tough bear meat was anything but palatable. Our mules suffered the most for there was nothing for them but very little of the coarsest hay and the little corn we carried with us.

All that day I remained out in the air, for the filthiness within which was in some measure hidden by the night now appeared with all its morning horrors. My party too, in no way more fastidious than their countrymen, shared with me my disgust and together we breakfasted outside the hut, and at night I betook myself to the stable where in the manger, wrapped in my cloak, I enjoyed a tolerable night.

During the night I was awakened by a terrible din amongst my four footed bed fellows, caused by the onslaught of a gang of wolves on the pigs and poultry. The mules were the first to give the alam, and the first howl also brought to the scene the large mastif, who quickly siezed and word one, until one of the Cagots came up and dispatched it. It was a large grey world, but in the last stage of starvation, his bones literally appeared through the skin