The line was free along the whole length of the train, and people came
and went, prowling round the carriages like beasts of prey in search
of carrion. All classes were mingled together. A millionaire, a high
functionary, it was said, wept on a workman's shoulder. The lamps had
been extinguished from the first, and the engine fire was nearly out. To
pass from one carriage to another it was necessary to grope about, and
thus, too, one slowly reached the engine, recognizable by its enormous
barrel, its cold, motionless flanks, its useless strength, its grim
silence, in the overwhelming night. Nothing could be more appalling than
this train entombed alive with its passengers perishing one by one.
I gloated over the ghastliness of each detail; howls resounded through
the vault; somebody whom one could not see, whose vicinity was not
even suspected, would suddenly drop upon another's shoulder. But what
affected me most of all was the cold and the want of air. I have never
felt so chilled; a mantle of snow seemed to enwrap me; heavy moisture
rained upon my skull; I was gasping; the rocky vault seemed to crush my
chest; the whole mountain was seemingly weighing upon me.
Suddenly a cry of deliverance sounded.
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