noon
We had to climb up the shoulder of the hill , now among tremendous rocks , now through water unfrozen , now upon wind-swept ice , but the snow -- the snow -- the heartless snow was our constant companion . It stood in walls before , it lay in ramparts round us , it wearied the eye to a most numbing pain . Unlucky were they who wore trews , for the same clung damply to knee and haunch and froze , while the stinging sleet might flay the naked limb till the blood rose among the felt of the kilted , but the suppleness of the joints was unmarred . It was long beyond noon when we reached the head of the pass , and saw before us the dip of the valley of the Spey . We were lost in a wilderness of mountain-peaks ; the bens started about us on every hand like the horrors of a nightmare , every ben with its death-sheet , menacing us , poor insects , crawling in our pain across the landscape . I thought we had earned a halt and a bite of meat by this forenoon of labour ; and Montrose himself , who had walked the pass on foot like his fellows , seemed anxious to rest , but Sir Alasdair pushed us on like a fate relentless . `` On , on , '' he cried , waving his long arms to the prospect before ; `` here 's but the start of our journey ; far is the way before ; strike fast , strike hot !