Manasseh Part 14

Looking out of her rear window, the princess noticed that her garden gate was open; it must have been left swinging by her domestics in their flight. She was hastening down-stairs to close it, when a man's form appeared before her in the gathering gloom, and she cried out in sudden terror.

"Do not be alarmed, Princess." The words came in a firm, manly voice that thrilled the hearer; she recognised the tones. Mana.s.seh Adorjan stood before her. "I could not gain admittance by the front door," he explained, "so I went around to the garden gate."

"And how is it," asked Blanka, "that you have come to me at the very moment that I was seeking you?"

"I wished, first, to bid you farewell. I am going home, to Transylvania, for my people are in trouble and I must go and help them. As long as they are happy I avoid them, but when misfortune comes I cannot stay away. War threatens to invade our peaceful valley, and I hasten thither."

"Has the hour come, then, when you feel it right to kill your fellow-men?"

"No, Princess; my part is to restore peace, not to foment strife."

Blanka's hands were clasped in her lap. She raised them to her bosom and begged her fellow-countryman to take her with him.

The colour mounted to his face, his breast heaved, he pa.s.sed his hand across his brow, whereon the perspiration had started, and stammered, in agitated accents:

"No, no, Princess, I cannot take you with me."

"Why not?" asked Blanka, tremulously.

"Because I am a man and but human. I could shield you against all the world, but not against myself. I love you! And if you came with me, how could you expect me to help you keep your vows? I am neither saint nor angel, but a mortal, and a sinful one."

The poor girl sank speechless into a chair and hid her face in her hands.

"Hear me further, Princess," continued the other, with forced calmness.

"I have told you but one reason why I sought you here to-day. The other was to show you a means of escape from this place, where you cannot remain in safety another day. You must leave Rome this very night, and that will be no easy thing to accomplish now that all the gates are guarded. But I have a plan. Above all things, you must find a lady to take you under her protection, and that, I think, can be effected.

Citizen Scalcagnato issues all the pa.s.sports for those that leave the city by the Colosseum gate. From him I have learned that the Countess X---- is to leave for the south to-night. I have obtained a pa.s.s for you, and you have only to make yourself ready and go with me to the Colosseum gate, where we will wait for her carriage. She is a good friend of yours and cannot refuse to take you as her travelling-companion. Do you approve my plan?"

"Yes, and I thank you."

"Then a few hours hence will see you on your journey southward. I shall set out for the north, and soon the length of Italy will separate us. Is it not best so?"

Blanka gave him her hand in mute a.s.sent.

An hour later Mana.s.seh and Blanka stood in the shelter of the gateway by which the countess was expected to leave Rome. They had not long to wait: the sound of an approaching carriage was soon heard, and when it halted under the gas-lamp Blanka recognised her friend's equipage. The gate-keeper advanced to examine the traveller's pa.s.sport, and as the carriage door was thrown open Blanka hastened forward and made herself known.

"What do you wish?" demanded the liveried footman.

The princess turned and looked at him. Surely she had seen that face and form before in a different setting, but she could not recall when or where. So much was evident, however, that the speaker was more wont to give than to receive orders. Blanka turned again to the open carriage door and plucked at the cloak of the person sitting within.

"You are fleeing from Rome, too, Countess," said she. "I beg you to take me with you."

But the carriage door was closed in her face.

"Countess, hear me!" she cried, in distress. "Have pity on me! Don't leave me to perish in the streets!"

Her pet.i.tion was unheeded. The footman drew her away and, as he turned to remount the vehicle, whispered three words in her ear:

"_e il papa!_"

It was the Pope, and he was fleeing! The spiritual ruler of the world, the king of kings, Heaven's viceroy upon earth, was flying for his life.

The judge fled and left the prisoner to her fate. Blanka felt herself absolved from all her vows. She plucked from her bosom the consecrated palm-leaf, tore it to pieces, and threw the fragments scornfully after the retreating carriage. Then she turned once more to Mana.s.seh.

"Now take me with you whithersoever you will!" she cried, and she sank on his bosom and suffered him to clasp her in a warm embrace.

CHAPTER XIV.

WALLACHIAN HOSPITALITY.

Mana.s.seh had not much choice of routes in making his way, with his companion, to Transylvania. After leaving Italy, he bent his course first to Dees, as the road thither seemed to offer no obstacles to peaceful travellers. Troops were, indeed, encountered here and there on the way; but they suffered Mana.s.seh and Blanka to pa.s.s unmolested.

Mana.s.seh had fortunately provided a generous hamper of supplies, so that his companion was not once made aware that they were pa.s.sing through a district lately overrun by a defeated army, which had so exhausted the resources of all the wayside inns that hardly a bite or a sup was to be had for love or money.

The weather was unusually fine, as the sunny autumn had that year extended into the winter. The Transylvanian was perfectly familiar with the region, and entertained his fellow-traveller with legends and stories of the places through which they pa.s.sed. In the splendid chestnut forests that crowned the heights of Nagy-Banya he told her the adventures of the bandit chief, Dionysius Tolvaj, who kept the whole countryside in terror, until at last the men of Nagy-Banya hunted him down and slew him. In his mountain cave are still to be seen his stone table, his fireplace, and the spring from which he drank. Mana.s.seh also related the adventures of bear-hunters in these woods, and told about the search for gold that had long been carried on in the mountains, and often with success, so that many of them were now honeycombed with shafts and tunnels.

Up from yonder valley rose the spirit of the mountains, a white and vapoury form, with which the st.u.r.dy mountaineers fought for the possession of the hidden treasure. In reality, however, it was no genie, but simply the fumes of sulphur and a.r.s.enic from the smelting works of the miners, who never drew breath without inhaling poison. And yet they lived and throve and were a healthy and happy people, the men strong, the women fair, and one and all fondly attached to their mountain home.

One evening Mana.s.seh pointed to a town in the distance, and told his companion that it was Kolozsvar. As they drew nearer they saw that it was garrisoned with a division of the national guard. Mana.s.seh was now among people who knew him well, and he did not expect to be asked to show his pa.s.sport. But he was mistaken. Suddenly a hand was laid on his arm and a firm voice saluted his ears.

"So you thought you'd slip by me without once showing your papers, did you? A pretty way to act, I must say!"

Mana.s.seh turned to the speaker, who proved to be a short, broad-shouldered, thick-set man, in a coa.r.s.e coat such as the Szeklers wear, high boots, and a large hat. His arms were disproportionately long for his short body, his beard was either very closely cut or sadly in need of the razor, and his legs were planted widely apart as he confronted the travellers in a challenging att.i.tude. Perhaps he wished to invite Mana.s.seh to a wrestling bout.

Blanka looked on in surprise as she saw the two men fling their arms around each other. But it was not the embrace of wrestlers. They exchanged a hearty kiss, and then Mana.s.seh cried, joyfully:

"Aaron, my dear brother!"

"Yes, it is Aaron, my good Mana.s.seh," returned the stocky little man, with a laugh; and, throwing aside the jacket that hung from his neck, he extended his right hand to his brother. Then he turned to Blanka. "And this pretty lady is our future sister-in-law, isn't she? G.o.d bless you!

Pray bend down a bit and let me give your rosy cheek a little smack of a kiss."

Blanka complied, and brother Aaron gave her blushing cheek much more than "a little smack."

"There," declared the honest fellow, with great apparent satisfaction, "I'm delighted that you didn't scream and make a fuss over my bristly beard. You see, I haven't had a chance to shave for four days. Three days and nights I've been here on the watch for my brother and his bride."

"And what about our two brothers, Simon and David?" asked Mana.s.seh, anxiously. "Are they alive and well?"

"Certainly, they are alive," was the answer. "Have you forgotten our creed? Our life is from everlasting to everlasting. But they are really alive and in the flesh, and, what is more"--turning to Blanka--"they are sure to come to meet us and will expect to receive each a nosegay from their brother's sweetheart."

Blanka smiled and promised not to disappoint them, for there were still plenty of autumn flowers in the woods and fields.

"Yes," said Aaron, "you'll find posies enough on the road. We are going by a way that is covered with them. If you don't believe it, look at this bouquet in my hat; it is still quite fresh, and I picked it in the Torda Gap. Have you ever heard of the Torda Gap? There is nothing like it in all the world; you'll remember it as long as you live. It is a splendid garden of wild flowers, and there you will see the cave of the famous Balyika,--he was Francis Rakoczy's general. Thence it is only a step to the Szekler Stone, and we are at home. Do you like to walk in the woods?"

"Nothing better!"

Here Mana.s.seh pulled his brother's sleeve. "Do you really mean to take us by the way of Torda Gap?" he whispered.