Poor Friday was really frightened when he saw the mountains all covered with snow, and felt cold weather, which he had never seen or felt before in his life.
To mend the matter, after we came to Pampeluna it continued snowing with so much violence and so long that the people said winter was come before its time, and the roads, which were difficult before, were now quite impassable; in a word, the snow lay in some places too thick for us to travel, and being not hard frozen, as is the case in northern countries, there was no going without being in danger of being buried alive at every step. We stayed no less than twenty days at Pampeluna, when (seeing the winter coming on, and no likelihood of its being better, for it was the severest winter all over Europe that had been known in many years) I proposed that we should all go away to Fontarabia, and there take shipping for Bourdeaux, which was a very little voyage.
But while we were considering this there came in four French gentlemen, who, having been stopped on the French side of the passes, as we were on the Spanish, had found out a guide who, traversing the country near the head of Languedoc, had brought them over the mountains by such ways that they were not much incommoded with the snow: and where they met with snow in any quantity, they said it was frozen hard enough to bear them and their horses.
We sent for this guide, who told us he would undertake to carry us the same way with no hazard from the snow, provided we were armed sufficiently to protect us from wild beasts, for he said upon these great snows, it was frequent for some wolves to show themselves at the foot of the mountains, being made ravenous for want of food, the ground being covered with snow. We told him we were well enough prepared for such creatures as they were, if he would insure us from a kind of two-legged wolves, which we were told we were in most danger from, especially on the French side of the mountains.
He satisfied us there was no danger of that kind in the way that we were to go, so we readily agreed to follow him, as did also twelve other gentlemen, with their servants, some French, some Spanish, who, as I said, had attempted to go, and were obliged to come back again.
Accordingly we all set out for Pampeluna with our guide on the 15th November; and indeed, I was surprised when, instead of going forward, he came directly back with us, on the same road that we came from Madrid, above twenty miles, when having passed two rivers, and come into the plain country, we found ourselves in a warm climate again, where the country was pleasant, and no snow to be seen; but on a sudden, turning to the left, he approached the mountains another way: and though it is true the hills and the precipices looked dreadfully, yet he made so many tours, such meanders, and led us by such winding ways, we insensibly passed the height of the mountains without being much encumbered with the snow, and all on a sudden he showed us the pleasant, fruitful provinces of Languedoc and Gascoigne, all green and flourishing; though indeed they were at a great distance, and we had some rough way to pass yet.
We were a little uneasy, however, when we found it snowed one whole day and a night so fast that we could not travel; but he bid us be easy, we should soon be past it all. We found, indeed, that we began to descend every day, and to come more north than before; and so, depending on our guide, we went on.
It was about two hours before night, when our guide, being something before us, and not just in sight, out rushed three monstrous wolves, and after them a bear, out of an hollow way adjoining to a thick wood. Two of the wolves flew upon the guide, and had he been half a mile before us, he had been devoured, indeed, before we could have helped him. One of them fastened upon his horse, and the other attacked the man with that violence that he had no time, or not presence of mind enough, to draw his pistol, but hallooed and cried out to us most lustily. My man Friday, being next to me, I bade him ride up and see what was the matter. As soon as Friday came in sight of the man, he hallooed as loud as the other, “O, master! O, master!” but like a bold fellow, rode directly up to the man, and with his pistol shot the wolf that attacked him in the head.