Part 20 (1/2)
The priest and the judge crossed themselves three times, and the latter raised his eyes most devoutly to a picture of Peter, hanging on the wall, as if he would call on him for help.
”You seem to me a courageous youth since you dare go near the Devil's garden,” said the Lieutenant. ”Will you show me the way?”
The Wallachian expressed by the pleasure in his face that he would gladly show him the way.
”In the name of Saint Nicholas and all the archangels, do not go there, my lord!” cried the priest. ”n.o.body who has ever wandered there has returned. The G.o.dly do not turn their steps that way. This youth has been led thither by his sins.”
”I do not go there of my own accord,” said Clement, scratching his head. ”Not that I am afraid of the name of the country, but I do not like to climb around over mountains. However my office requires it and I must fulfil my duty.”
”Then at least fasten a consecrated boat on your cap,” urged the anxious shepherd of souls. ”Or else take a picture of Saint Michael with you so that the devils cannot come near you.”
”Thank you, my good people. But you would do better if you would get me a pair of sandals; I cannot go through the mountains in these spurred boots. Your safeguards I can make no use of, for I am a Unitarian.”
At this reply the priest crossed himself and said with a sigh:
”I thought you were a true believer, you inquired so zealously about the witches.”
”This is only my official duty, not my belief. Send me the Turk.”
As he went out, the Pope murmured half aloud,
”You go well together,--two pagans.”
”Comrade Zulfikar,” called out Clement to the Turk as he entered, fastening on the sandals that had been brought, ”you can look out for your own route now, for I must take a little side-dodge into the mountains.”
”If you dodge, I will dodge too,” replied the distrustful deserter.
”Wherever you go, I will go.”
”Where I am going, my dear friend, there is nothing to put in your pocket; it must be you wish to bag the devil, for no human being has ever set foot there.”
”How do I know where the people live in this confounded country of yours! My orders were to go with you until I reached the starting-point again.”
”All the better, for there will be more of us. Help me draw my sword out of the scabbard, so I can defend myself if necessary.”
”So you carry a sword that it takes two men to draw. Let me get hold of it.”
The two men planted their feet, grasped the sword with both hands and tugged at it for some time. At last it came out of its scabbard, almost throwing Clement over backward. Then Clement took a pitcher of honey, rubbed the rusty sword with the sticky stuff and put it back into its scabbard.
”Now we must be on our way, young man,” he said to the Wallachian.
The latter at once took up his hat and his axe from the ground and went ahead without as much as one glance back at the dead. His mother seized him by the hand.
”Will you not kiss your dead love?”
Sanga-moarta did not so much as look--pulled his hand away from his mother's, and went with the two strangers out into the deep darkness of the forest.
All night long these adventurers wandered through a deep valley from which they could just catch sight of the giant summits rising on all sides; directly overhead glimmered a strip of starry sky. Toward morning they reached the midst of the mountains. What a sight that was! Along the s.h.i.+ning crystal peaks stretched dark green forest--on one side rose a crag of basalt, with columns like organ pipes in rows, topped by trees. In front of this crag of basalt a white cloud moved, but the summit and base of the rock were to be seen; from time to time the lightning flashed through the cloud but it was some time before the roll of the thunder rang through the organ pipes. At a little distance is a cleft in the rocks, and the two parts look as if their jagged edges would fit together. Through the ravine several fathoms wide, a branch of the cold Szomas forces its way and is lost again among the thick oaks along the sh.o.r.e. In another place the rocks are piled up in stairs not intended however for human foot, for each step is as high as a house. Again the rocks are tumbled together in such a way that the entire mountain ma.s.s would fall into other forms if the rock beneath were moved from its position. Everything indicates that here the rule of man has found its limit. From the dizzying height not a single hut is seen; on all sides are bold crags and yawning chasms through which the mountain streams roll tumultuously. Only the ibex wanders from crag to crag.
”Which way are we going?” Clement asked his guide, looking anxiously about, where there was every possibility of losing oneself irrecoverably.