CHAPTER XIVTHE WHIRLING FIRE
“A wordfrom Hans had carried us from the house, but the great measure of his news we had while we drew our cloaks about us, and armed ourselves with the guns which stood always in the hall of the château.
“‘God of Heaven! that I did not tell her!’ gasped the trembling steward. ‘She set off an hour ago to wait for my master in the park. I never thought that she would pass the gates—how should I?—but now comes the news that she is on the Jajce road! May the day be black that sends me with such tidings to my master!’
“You, excellency, who are a stranger to the mountain land about Jajce, may well know nothing of the meaning of such words as these; yet to us, fed from our childhood on knowledge of the woods, the message of Hans was like tidings of death itself. Even the peasants in their numbers scarce dare venture out upon thehills when the sun has set and the howling of the wolves makes dismal music of the night. I, who know the passes as I know these waters, would as soon cast myself down from yondercampanileas put horses to my sleigh when the light of the sunshine is no longer upon the snow. For if I did so, then might I look to leave my bones upon the road—to be torn limb from limb by hungry beasts before the lamps of the village were lost to my view. Christine was aware of no such dangers. She had heard tales in the summer time of travellers who had been devoured in the desolate places of the mountains by ravenous packs; of bridal parties whose wedding journey had been a journey to the terrible death which the hills hold in store for the reckless. But that peril should await her within a stone’s throw of the Count’s park was a thing she had not dreamt of. Eager to greet again the man who was more dear to her than anything in the world, thinking to please him by meeting his sleigh when it was yet some distance from the house, she had ventured beyond the gates, and had disappeared at last down the road to Jajce. A peasant had remonstrated with her almost atthe lodge of the park; but, his tongue being unknown to her, she had laughed at his gesticulations, and had gone on—God knew to what peril or to what fate.
“You may be sure that tidings of all this were spread abroad very quickly by the men of the Count’s household. So fast did the news run that we found quite a little company at the gates of the park, the grooms being come from their stables, the woodlanders from their huts. Of these some had torches in their hands, for it was now full dark; some carried sticks, some lanterns. It was agreed quickly, even above the babble of the talk, that we should strike all together down the road to Jajce; and we trusted that the flare of our torches and the sound of our voices would help to keep danger from the path. In this we were not disappointed, though we had not gone more than half a mile from the house when the need for our journey was made manifest to us. We could see by the moon’s light, which shone gloriously upon the whitened hills, the creeping forms of packs upon the heights. From wood to wood they skulked—scores, nay hundreds, of the famished beasts; and their howling waslike a very dirge of the dead. Mournfully, weirdly, now with a ferocity which chilled the heart, now long-drawn as the sighs of damned spirits, the haunting wail went up. That was a heavy winter—a winter when the frost made the hills like domes of iron; when the snow lay heavy and deep upon the grass; when the cattle died in the fields and the bears came down even to the gardens of the houses. It was a season when the wolf was to be found at the very gates of the city: when the flesh was torn from the woodlanders’ bones as they sat in their huts; a season spoken of now in hushed whispers, remembered by a people born and bred to such perils.
“We could see the wolves skulking in the thickets, excellency, and we drew the closer together at the sight, raising our voices and kindling new torches. Yet so great was the hunger which the beasts suffered that presently they became bolder, and began to collect in little groups at the side of the path; while here and there one would leap out, snapping his teeth and shewing us eyes which flashed red in the dim light. And at this some of the grooms began to lose heart and to cry out that ourerrand could end only in disaster to ourselves. Even the steward was shaking with terror, and alternately reproaching himself and assuring us that we were out on a fool’s business.
“‘Holy Saints,’ he would cry, ‘how they bark; it is like the howling of souls in hell! Did you hear that, Father? The Virgin pray for us. Yet what can we do? That I should go to the Count with such a tale! Think you that she is on the Jajce road? God help her, then. Yet she might as well have looked towards Jézero. Fool that I was to think of coming abroad!’
“‘You speak well, Master Hans,’ cried one of the grooms; ‘this is no errand for men with wives and children to look to them. Not that I am afraid. Who says that lies. I never yet feared man or beast—the Lord have mercy on my soul.’
“A loud amen followed the rogue’s words, and we went on a little further, descending deeper into the gorge and the darkness of the woods. Here the road was very lonely, the trees bridging it over with their branches, and the mountains above seeming to be fleecy vapours hanging in the dome of the heavens.We could hear the pursuing beasts pattering in the thickets at our side, and they howled no longer—a sure sign that they were making ready to spring out upon us. Presently Hans, who was in the van of the company, stopped running altogether, and stood crying to us to listen to him.
“‘One word,’ said he; ‘we are going too fast for Father Mark—I can see it by his step—and this is no place to rest in. It is my advice that we return to the park and then venture a little way down the road to Jézero. Had she passed by here, surely we had overtaken her before this.’
“‘Aye, truly,’ cried another; ‘I am with Master Hans. Go back, say I, and try towards Jézero. It’s here that Gozzo, the shepherd, was torn last year, with his horse. You don’t forget that, Father? Not that I am afraid—who says that lies.’
“They stood now clamouring round the priest, who, be it said to his credit, was the best man among them. I can see him in my mind now, excellency, panting heavily for want of his breath, and raising his stick to bring them to silence.
“‘Who goes back,’ he said presently, ‘him will I bring to account here upon the spot. Louts! do you leave a woman in her peril? What tale will you carry to your master? That I should call such carrion my children! Go on, I say, or you shall feel my cudgel on your shoulders!’
“They were a little shamefaced at this, all hanging very closely together, and cocking their guns in readiness to fire. Even I, to whom the bark of a wolf is no more than the clatter of a pebble in a brook, found some comfort in the fact that I stood at the priest’s side, and was thus in the centre of the group. As for the pack in the thicket, it had become bolder at our halt, and we could now see the brutes, some snarling in the bushes at our side, some jumping before us from the wood to the road, and again from the road to the wood, others dogging our steps and waiting for that moment when one beast more bold than the rest should spring to the attack and a hundred should follow him. So closely did they press upon us at last that we formed a ring in the centre of the path, and fired a rattling volley into them, a great flame of fire lighting theblack place of the thicket, and sending them howling and rolling in the depths of the snow. Then, with another loud shout, we ran on through the wood, and found ourselves, to our infinite satisfaction, again upon the open road.
“You may imagine how, in all these trying moments, my thoughts had turned upon Christine. If we, fifteen good men, with torches to light us and guns in our hands, must press together to turn the peril from our path, how, I asked, had it fared with an unarmed girl knowing nothing of the peril or the road. One hope only I had, and it was this—that Christine had passed through the wood while it was yet daylight, and had taken shelter ultimately in the village lying between the great house and Jajce. Yet I knew that this was unlikely; and it was ever in my head that the child had perished already, and that we must go to the Count with the story of her death in our mouths. Nor could I imagine any man so bold that he should bear such news, though it was my consolation that some other than myself must be the messenger.
“I was pluming myself upon this, and telling myself that I, at any rate, should be excused,even if I lost hope of recompense for my care of the child, when Father Mark of a sudden stopped us in our walk and raised his hands warningly.
“‘Hush!’ said he; ‘I thought that I heard a woman’s cry!’
“We all listened with bent ears, but so loud was the howling of the brutes about us that we caught no sound, and the priest spoke again.
“‘I am sure that I was not deceived,’ said he; ‘it was a cry that I heard, and it came from the hamlet yonder.’”