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Sometimes I could cope with the sullen despair that overwhelmed

me, but sometimes the whirlwind passions of my soul drove me to

seek, by bodily exercise and by change of place, some relief from

my intolerable sensations. It was during an access of this kind

that I suddenly left my home, and bending my steps towards the

near Alpine valleys, sought in the magnificence, the eternity of

such scenes, to forget myself and my ephemeral, because human,

sorrows. My wanderings were directed towards the valley of

Chamounix. I had visited it frequently during my boyhood. Six

years had passed since then: I was a wreck, but nought had

changed in those savage and enduring scenes.