Part 60 (2/2)
At this Feriz grew enthusiastic.
”We will save this brave woman; is she still defending herself?”
”No. My chief confidant--a man whom I trusted would carry out my ideas, a man whom I found a beggar and made a gentleman--betrayed her, and they now hold her captive. Believe me, Feriz, if they gave her back to me I would perchance for ever forget my dream of glory and renounce the crown I seek, but to win her back I'll go through h.e.l.l itself, and you will see that I shall go through this mountain chain also, for though I have not the strength to fly over it, I have the patience to crawl over it.”
Feriz Beg sighed gloomily.
”Alas! I have no one for whose sake I might hasten into battle.”
Early next morning Tokoly came over to Feriz's quarters and told him that he had just received tidings that Heissler had arrived during the night, having galloped without stopping through Szent Peter to Torcsvar.
Teleki, too, was with him.
That name seemed to electrify the young Turk.
He leapt quickly from his couch, and, seizing his sword, raised it towards Heaven and cried with a savage expression which had never been on his face before: ”I thank thee, Allah, that thou hast delivered him into my hands!”
The two young generals then consulted together in private for about an hour, after sending everyone out of their tent. Then they came forth and reviewed their forces. Feriz selected his best Janissaries and Spahis, Tokoly the Hungarian hussars and the swiftest of the Tartars, and with this little army, numbering about six thousand, they marched off without saying whither. The vast camp meanwhile was intrusted to the care of the Prince of Moldavia, who was charged to stand face to face night and day over against the Transylvanian army, and not move from the spot.
Meanwhile the two young leaders, with their picked band, made their way among the hills by the dark, sylvan mountain paths, whose wilderness no human foot had ever yet trod. Anyone looking down upon them from the rocks above would have called their enterprise foolhardy. Now they had to crawl down precipitous slopes on their hands and knees; now gigantic rocks barred their way, which enclosed them within a narrow, mountainous gorge whence there was no exit; here and there they had to cling on to the roots of the stout shrubs growing out of the crevices of the rocks, or pull themselves up, man by man, and horse by horse, by means of ropes fastened to the trunks of trees. In these regions nought dwelt but savage birds of prey, and the startled golden eagle looked down in wonder from his stony lair at the panting, toiling host--what did such a mult.i.tude of men seek in that desolate wilderness?
The Transylvanian gentlemen from the vantage-point of a lofty mountain ridge watched the two opposing hosts facing each other in front of the defiles. Now the Szeklers would burst forth from the woods on the straying Tartars and drive them back to their tents, and now like a disturbing swarm of wasps the Tartars and Wallachians would force the Szeklers back to the very borders of the forest. It was great fun to watch all this from the lofty ridge where stood Heissler, Doria, and Teleki observing the manly sport through long telescopes.
Suddenly the sentinels brought to Heissler a Wallachian who had given the pickets to understand that he had brought a message from the Prince of Wallachia to the commander-in-chief.
”No doubt it is to tell you once more not to go into Wallachia again, for the enemy has eaten it up,” said Teleki, turning to Heissler, who had got to the bottom of the Prince's former craftiness. ”What is your master's message?” he said, turning towards the Wallachian.
”He sends his respects, and bids you be on your guard against Tokoly, for he has a large army and is very crafty; but instead of opposing him in the direction of Wallachia you would do better if you saw to it that he did not break into Transylvania, and you ought to beware of this all the more as only three days ago he departed from the main host along with his chief Sirdar, with a picked army of six thousand men, which has since vanished as completely as if the earth had swallowed it up.”
”What did I say?” remarked Heissler, with a smile to Teleki. ”You may go back, my son, from whence you came,” he said to the Szekler.
But Teleki shook his head at this.
”It is quite possible,” said he, ”that while we are halting here, Tokoly may issue forth somewhere behind our very backs.”
Heissler pointed at the snow-capped mountains.
”Can anything but a bird get through those?”
”If Tokoly lead the way--yes.”
”Your Excellency has a great respect for that gentleman.”
”Truly, Mr. General, I should advise you to summon hither the regiments left at the iron gate, and bring up some more cannons.”
Heissler did not even reply, but beckoned to him to be silent.
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