My name is Antonio Geoletti, and I am a Piedmontese. Twenty years ago I was by profession a guide of the Val d’Aosta. There was none equal to me in knowledge of that district. From the Glacier di Lys to the chain of Mon Iseran I knew it all, every acre. The valleys of Pellina, du Butier, d’Entreves, Veni, de la Tuile, Grisanche, Savera, di Cogne, Camporcier--they were hackneyed to me one and all. I could trace to its source every mountain torrent which poured from the high Alps into the upper waters of the Dora Baltea. The cravats of Mon Cervin, d’Oren, de Ferret, were no less my familiars than were the passes de la Seigne and of the great and little St Bernards, through which I would often conduct visitors bound adventurously for Savoy. My knowledge of the mountains was unique, wonderful--informed with secrets, moreover, hidden from all others. It was the possession of one such secret, alas! which betrayed me to my ruin. In the Val d’Entreves are the village and baths of Cormayeur. There is also the Hospice of St Marguerite to which invalids resort. Thither, in the spring of 1860, came two ladies, Miss Lucie Love, a young English _héritière_ and orphan, and her only living relative, Madame Gondran, who was old and sick, with eyes like the dying hawk, and of a self-will and passion quite ungovernable. The young lady was the most beautiful in person and complexion; for which reason, it would appear, and because of the many gifts of health and wealth which Fortune had lavished upon its favourite, her aunt could never expend enough upon her her heart of venom and detestation. I think she would have liked to debar her for ever from all the profits of her estate of youth. But such a flower so sweet, and well-bequeathed, was not long to escape the marauding bee. There arrived to Aosta in these days two gentlemen making the tour, a young English milord and his Gouverneur, of whom the names were respectively Mr Charles Skene and Mr Delane. These two, then, exploring among the mountains, came very shortly across Miss Lucie; and straightway the die was cast. Milord would hear of nothing but that they transfer at once their quarters to Cormayeur; and so there they went and remained for six months and more. In this interval what now has come to pass? You shall hear, as I heard--partly of gossip, partly of acquaintances employed in the Hospice, partly of my own ears; for the gentlemen engaged me constantly to convey them into the places of interest about the neighbourhood.