The Slaves of the Padishah Part 24

"Merciful G.o.d! Then what shall we do?"

"My master whispered a few words in my ear, and I fancy I caught their meaning. First of all I must take you off to Transylvania, my lady.

Meanwhile my master will remain here with the cava.s.ses and their attendants, who are now in the courtyard. My master will remain with them and spin out the time till he feels pretty sure that we have got well beyond the river Sereth in our carriage. Near there is a bridge over a steep rocky chasm, beneath which the river flows. That bridge we will break down behind us. The Prince will then bring forth his charger Gryllus, on whose back he is wont to take such daring leaps, and will set out in the same direction with the Turkish cava.s.ses. When he approaches the broken-down bridge, he will put spurs to his steed and leap across the gap, while the Turks remain behind. And after that G.o.d grant him good counsel!"

Mariska perceiving there was no time to be lost, hastily collected her treasures and, a.s.sisted by Jova, descended by way of the secret staircase to the chapel and stood there, for a moment, before the image of the Blessed Virgin to pray that her husband might succeed in escaping. Before the chapel door stood a carriage drawn by four muscular stallions. She got into it quickly, and succeeded in escaping by a side-gate.

Meanwhile the Prince, with great self-denial, endeavoured to detain his unwelcome guests by all manner of pretexts. First of all he almost compelled them to eat and drink to bursting point, swearing by heaven and earth that he would never allow such precious guests as they were to leave his castle with empty stomachs. Then followed a distribution of gifts. Every individual cava.s.se got a sword or a beaker and every sword and every beaker had its own peculiar history. So-and-so had worn it, So-and-so had drunk out of it. It had been found here and sent there, and its last owner was such a one, etc., etc. And he artfully interlarded his speech with such sacred and sublime words as "Allah!"

"Mahomet!" "the Sultan!" at the mention of each one of which the cava.s.ses felt bound to interrupt him repeatedly with such expressions as "Blessed be his name!" so that despite the insistence of the Turks, it was fully an hour before his horse could be brought forward.

At last, however, Gryllus was brought round to the courtyard. The Prince now also would have improved the occasion by telling them a nice interesting tale about this steed of his, but the chief cava.s.se would give him no peace.

"Come! mount your Honour!" said he, "you can tell us the story on the way."

The Prince mounted accordingly, and immediately began to complain how very much all the galloping of the last few days had taken it out of him, and begged his escort not to hurry on so as he could scarce sit in his saddle.

The chief cava.s.se, taking him at his word, had the Prince's feet tied fast to his stirrups, so that he might not fall off his horse, sarcastically adding:

"If your honour should totter in your saddle, I shall be close beside you, so that you may lean upon me."

And indeed the chief cava.s.se trotted by his side with a drawn sword in his hand; the rest were a horse's head behind them.

When they came to the path leading to the bridge the way grew so narrow because of the rocks on both sides that it was as much as two hors.e.m.e.n could do to ride abreast. The Prince already caught sight of the bridge, and though its wooden frame was quite hidden by a projecting tree, a white handkerchief tied to the tree informed him that his carriage with his consort inside it had got across and away, and that the supports had been also cut.

At this point he made as if he felt faint and turning to the chief cava.s.se, said to him, "Come nearer, I want to lean on you!" and upon the cava.s.se leaning fatuously towards him he dealt him such a fearful blow with his clenched fist that the Turk fell right across his horse. And now: "Onward, my Gryllus!"

The gallant steed with a bound forward left the escort some distance behind, and while they dashed after him with a savage howl, he darted with the fleetness of the wind towards the bridge.

The Prince sat tied to his horse without either arms or spurs, but the n.o.ble charger, as if he felt that his master's life was now entrusted to his safe-keeping, galloped forward with ten-fold energy.

Suddenly it became clear to the pursuers that the beams of the bridge had been severed and only the bal.u.s.trade remained. "Stop!" they shouted in terror to the Prince, at the same time reining in their own horses.

Then Ghyka turned towards them a haughty face, and leaning over his horse's head, pressed its flanks with his knees, and at the very moment when he had reached the dizzy chasm he laughed aloud as he raised his eagle-plumed cap in the air, and shouted to his pursuers: "Follow me, if you dare!"

The charger the same instant lowered its head upon its breast, and, with a well-calculated bound, leaped the empty s.p.a.ce between the two sides of the bridge as lightly as a bird. The Prince as he flew through the air held his eagle-plumed cap in his hand, while his black locks fluttered round his bold face.

The terrified cava.s.ses drew the reins of their horses tightly lest they should plunge after Gryllus; but one of them, carried away by his maddened steed, would also have made the bold leap but the fore feet of the horse barely grazed the opposite bank, and with a mortal yell it crashed down with its rider among the rocks of the stream below.

The Prince meanwhile, beneath the very eyes of the cava.s.ses, loosened the cords from his legs on the opposite sh.o.r.e and also allowed himself time enough to break down the remaining bal.u.s.trades of the bridge, one by one, and pitch them into the river. Then, remounting his steed, he ambled leisurely off whilst the cava.s.ses gazed after him in helpless fury. A rapid two hours' gallop enabled him to overtake the carriage of his wife, who, according to his directions, had hastened without stopping towards Transylvania with the sole escort of the old horseman.

On overtaking the carriage he mounted the old man on his own nag, and sent him on before to Transylvania requesting the Prince to allow him and his wife to pa.s.s through Transylvania to the domains of the Kaiser.

He himself took a seat in the carriage by the side of Mariska, who was quite rejoiced at her husband's deliverance, and forgot the anxieties still awaiting her.

According to the most rigorous calculations their pursuers would either have to go another way, or they might throw another bridge over the Sereth; but, in any case they had a day's clear start of them, which would be quite sufficient to enable them, travelling leisurely, to reach the borders of Transylvania, where the Seraskier of Moldavia had no jurisdiction.

In this hope they presently perceived the mountains of Szeklerland rising up before them, and the nearer they came to them the more lightly they felt their hearts beat, regarding the mountain range as a vast city of refuge stretching out before them.

They had already struck into that deep-lying road which leads to the Pa.s.s of Porgo, which, after winding along the bare hillside, plunges like a serpent into the shady flowering valleys beneath, and every now and then a mountain stream darted along the road beside them; above them the dangerous road looked like a tiny notch in which a heavy wagon crawled slowly along, with lofty rocks apparently tottering to their fall above it in every direction.

And here galloping straight towards them, was a horseman in whom the Prince instantly recognised his _avant courier_.

Old Jova reached them in a state of exhaustion, and Gryllus also seemed ready to drop.

"Go no further, sir!" cried the terrified servant, "I have come all the way without stopping from Szamosujvar where the Prince is staying. I laid your request before him. 'For G.o.d's sake!' cried the Prince, clasping his hands together, 'don't let your master come here, or he'll ruin the whole lot of us. Olaj Beg has just come hither with the Sultan's command that if the Prince of Moldavia comes here he is to be handed over.'"

The Prince gazed gloomily in front of him, his lips trembled. Then he turned his face round and shading his eyes with his hand, gazed away into the distance. On the same road by which he had come a cloud of dust could be seen rapidly approaching.

"Those are our pursuers," he moaned despairingly; "there is nothing for it but to die."

"Nay, my master. Over yonder is a mountain path which can only be traversed on foot. With worthy Szeklers or Wallachs as our guides we may get all the way to Poland through the mountains. Why not take refuge there?"

"And my wife?" asked the Prince, looking round savagely and biting his lips in his distress; "she cannot accompany me."

All this time Mariska had remained, benumbed and speechless, gazing at her husband--her heart, her mind, stood still at these terrible tidings; but when she heard that her husband could be saved without her, she plunged out of the carriage and falling at his feet implored him, sobbing loudly, to fly.

"Save yourself," she cried; "do not linger here on my account another instant."

"And sacrifice you, my consort, to their fury?"

"They will not hurt me, for they do not pursue an innocent woman. G.o.d will defend me. You go into Transylvania; there live good friends of mine, whose husbands and fathers are the leading men in the State; there is the heroic Princess, there is the gentle Beldi with her angel daughter, there is Teleki's daughter Flora--we swore eternal friendship together once--they will mediate for us; and then, too, my rich father will gladly spend his money to spare our blood. And if I must suffer and even die, it will be for you, my husband. Save yourself! In Heaven's name I implore you to depart from me."

Ghyka reflected for a moment.

"Very well, I will take refuge in order to be able to save you."

And he pressed the pale face of his wife to his bosom.

"Make haste," said Mariska, "I also want to hasten. If die I must--I would prefer to die among Christians, in the sight of my friends and acquaintances. But you go on in front, for if they were to slay you before my eyes, it would need no sword to slay me; my heart would break from sheer despair."

"Come, sir, come!" said the old courier, seizing the hand of the Prince and dragging him away by force.

Mariska got into the carriage again, and told the coachman to drive on quickly. The Prince allowed himself to be guided by the old courier along the narrow pa.s.s, looking back continually so long as the carriage was visible, and mournfully pausing whenever he caught sight of it again from the top of some mountain-ridge.

"Come on, sir! come on!" the old servant kept insisting; "when we have reached that mountain summit yonder we shall be able to rest."

Ghyka stumbled on as heavily as if the mountain was pressing on his bosom with all its weight. He allowed himself to be led unconsciously among the steep precipices, clinging on to projecting bushes as he went along. G.o.d guarded him from falling a hundred times.

After half an hour's hard labour they reached the indicated summit, and as the courier helped his master up and they looked around them, Nature's magnificent tableau stood before them; and looking down upon a vast panorama, they saw the tiny winding road by which his wife had gone; and, looking still farther on, he perceived that the carriage had just climbed to the summit of a declivity about half a league off.

Ah! that sight gave him back his soul. He followed with his eyes the travelling coach, and as often as the coach ascended a higher hill, it again appeared in sight, and it seemed to him as if all along he saw inside it his wife, and his face brightened as he fancied himself kissing away her tears.

At that instant a loud uproar smote upon his ears. At the foot of the steep mountain, on the summit of which his wife had just come into sight again, he saw a troop of hors.e.m.e.n trotting rapidly along. These were the pursuers. They seemed scarcely larger than ants.

Ah! how he would have liked to have trampled those ants to death.

"You would pursue her, eh? Then I will stop you."

And with these words seizing a large grey rock from among those which were heaped upon the summit, he rolled it down the side of the mountain just as the Turks had reached a narrow defile.

With a noise like thunder the huge ma.s.s of rock plunged its way down the mountain-side, taking great leaps into the air whenever it encountered any obstacle. Ah! how the galloping rock plunged among the terrified hors.e.m.e.n--only a streak of blood remained in its track, horses and hors.e.m.e.n were equally crushed beneath it.