"
"Let us try; but I fear it will be impossible, at least for _him_," said
I, pointing to Jack.
"_Him_, indeed, papa, and why not?" said the bold fellow; "_he_ is
perhaps as strong, and more active, than some of _them_; ask Fritz what
he thinks of his workman. Shall I go the first to show you the way?"
And he was advancing boldly, but I checked him, and said, that before we
undertook to scale these masses of rock, absolutely bare, where we had
nothing to support us, or to hold by, it would be as well to examine if,
by descending lower, we could not find a less dangerous road. We
descended to the narrow pass, and found our drawbridge, plantation, all
our fortification that my boys were so proud of, and where, at Fritz's
request, I had even planted a small cannon, all, all destroyed; the
cannon swallowed up with the rest. My boys deplored their
disappointment; but I showed them how useless such a defence must ever
be. Nature had provided us with a better fortification than we could
construct, as we just now bitterly experienced.
We had descended several yards lower with incredible difficulty, plunged
in a wet, heavy soil, and obliged to step across immense stones, when
Fritz, who went first, cried out, joyfully--
"The roof, papa! the roof of our _chalet_! it is quite whole; it will be
a bridge for us if we can only get to it.
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