All this became classic ground to them afterwards, and the causes which made it so were now gathering to their fulfilment, even now, while these three were making happy holiday together, little dreaming of what was to come. Afterwards, years after, they three came and looked on this valley again; not as now, with laughter and jokes, but silently, speaking in whispers, as though they feared to wake the dead. The road they followed, suddenly rising from the forest, took over the shoulder of a rocky hill, and then, plunging down again, followed a little running creek up to where a great ridge of slate, crossing the valley, hemmed them in on either side, leaving only room for the creek and the road. Following it further, the glen opened out, sweeping away right and left in broad curves, while straight before them, a quarter of a mile distant, there rose out of the low scrub and fern a mighty wall of limestone, utterly barring all further progress save in a single spot to the left, where the vast grey wall was split, giving a glimpse of another glen beyond. This great natural cleft was the limestone gate which they had come to see, and which was rendered the more wonderful by a tall pinnacle of rock, which stood in the centre of the gap about 300 feet in height, not unlike one of the same kind in Dovedale. "I don't think I ever saw anything so beautiful," said Alice. "How fine that spire of rock is, shooting up from the feathered shrubs at the base! I will come here some day and try to draw it." "Wait a minute," said Jim; "you have not seen half yet." He led them through the narrow pass, among the great boulders which lined the creek. The instant they came beyond, a wind, icy cold, struck upon their cheeks, and Alice, dropping her reins, uttered a cry of awe and wonder, and Sam too exclaimed aloud; for before them, partly seen through crowded tree stems, and partly towering above the forest, lay a vast level wall of snow, flecked here and there by the purple shadow of some flying summer cloud. A sight so vast and magnificent held them silent for a little; then suddenly, Jim, looking at Alice, saw that she was shivering. "What is the matter, Alice, my dear?" he said; "let us come away; the snow-wind is too much for you." "Oh! it is not that!" she said. "Somebody is walking over my grave." "Oh, that's all!" said Jim; "they are always at it with me, in cold weather. Let 'em. It won't hurt, that I know of." But they turned homeward nevertheless; and coming through the rock walls again, Jim said, "Sam, what was that battle the Doctor and you were reading about one day, and you told me all about it afterwards, you know?" "Malplacquet?" "No; something like that, though. Where they got bailed up among the rocks, you know, and fought till they were all killed." "Thermopylae?" "Ah! This must be just such another place, I should think." "Thermopylae was by the sea-shore," said Alice.