Neath the Hoof of the Tartar Part 29

"Come along, come along!" he said, for he was anxious to get back to Dora, and to make up the fire again. Should he take them into, the warmer inner room, or keep them in the other until he knew more about them? He was still undecided what to do when a sudden exclamation from one of the wanderers, followed by the fervent words, "Glory be to Jesus!" startled him.

More startled still was he to hear from Dora the response, "For ever and ever!" and to see her clinging to the begrimed "Tartar."

"Father Roger! Father Roger!" she exclaimed tremulously, and for the moment could say no more.

CHAPTER XVII.

A STAMPEDE.

As soon as he was sufficiently warmed to be able in some degree to control his trembling lips, Father Roger explained that he had been captured by the Mongols, from whom he had but recently escaped; that his life had been spared, at first on account of his clerical costume, and afterwards because he had been taken into the service of a Tartar-Magyar, who had saved both himself and his servant.

But when Dora would have questioned him further, and inquired who the Tartar-Magyar was, he shook his head, saying gently, "Another time, dear child, another time--perhaps. But it is a nightmare I would willingly forget, except that I may give praise to G.o.d, who has preserved us through so many grievous perils."

It was evidently such a painful subject that she could not press him further; and she began to speak of their own plans.

"Dalmatia!" said the Canon, shaking his head, "Dalmatia! but we are in Transylvania! and who knows for certain where his Majesty may be? I have heard rumours, but that is all, and they are ancient by this time.

It would be wiser to try and find some safe retreat here, where there are more hiding-places than in the great plains."

He spoke dreamily; but he had noticed Dora's hollow cheeks, and had marked how greatly she was altered from the bright, beautiful girl whom he had last seen less than a year ago. Her strength would never hold out for so long a journey, even if it were otherwise desirable, which he did not himself think it; for he was able to throw some light upon the mysterious movement among the Mongols, and told his hearers that Oktai the Great Khan had died suddenly in Asia; and that Batu Khan, the famous conqueror, was far too important a person in his own eyes to be ignored when it came to the choice of a successor. He must make his voice heard, his influence felt; and the tidings had no sooner reached him than he despatched orders to all his scattered forces, appointing a place of rendezvous, and bidding them rejoin him at once.

This done, off he hurried, in his usual headlong way; and, with his captives, his many waggons laden with booty, and his yellow hosts, he had rushed like a tornado through Transylvania into Moldavia, plundering, burning, ravaging, according to custom, as he went.

That was the last Father Roger knew of him; for, finding that the farther they went the worse became the treatment of the captives, until at last the only food thrown to them was offal and the bones the Mongols had done with, he had felt convinced that a ma.s.sacre of the old and feeble was impending.

"Then the Tartar-Magyar is not gone with them to Asia, and he could not protect you any longer?" asked Dora.

"He could not protect us any longer," echoed Father Roger. "We, my faithful servant here and I, watched our opportunity and made our escape one night into the forest."

And here we may mention that they had fled none too soon, as the ma.s.sacre of those not worth keeping as slaves actually took place, as Father Roger had foreseen, and that within a very short time after his flight.

The more Talabor thought of it, the more he felt that Father Roger was probably right as to Dalmatia, and Dora finally acquiesced in giving up her cherished plan. It was a comfort to be with Father Roger, broken down though he was; and for the rest, if she could not join her father, what did it matter where she went? She left it to him and Talabor to decide, without troubling her head as to their reasons, or even so much as asking what they had agreed; but the disappointment was grievous.

The little party therefore journeyed on together, slowly and painfully, often hungering, often nearly frozen, until at last they reached the town now known as Carlsburg. But here again they found only ruins and streets filled with dead bodies, and they toiled on again till they came to the smaller town of Frata, where there were actually a good number of people, recently emerged from their hiding-places, and all busily engaged in strengthening and fortifying the walls to the best of their power.

They had but little news to give, for all were in doubt and uncertainty both as to the King and the Mongols. The latter they did not in the least trust; and though Frata had hitherto escaped, no one felt any security that it might not be besieged any day, almost any hour.

"Better the caves and woods than that," said Father Roger with a shudder. But if there were no safety for them in Frata itself, Talabor heard there of what seemed at least a likely refuge for Dora, and that with a member of her own family, a certain Orsolya Szirmay, who was said to have taken refuge among the mountains, and to have many of the Transylvanian n.o.bility with her, and would certainly receive them.

"Only a little further!" said Talabor, as he had said before; but this time it was "only a few miles," not a quarter of an hour's walk; and when one can walk but slowly, when one's strength is ebbing fast, and one's feet are swollen and painful from the many weary miles they have trodden, when one is chilled to the bone, weak from long want of proper food, and in constant terror of savage beasts and still more savage men, the prospect of more rough travelling, though only for "a few miles,"

is enough to make the bravest heart sink.

Before we see how it fared with the four travellers, we must glance at what had been taking place in Transylvania, whose warlike inhabitants had been far less apathetic and incredulous than those of Hungary, and at the first note of alarm had raised troops for the Palatine. Hedervary had been despatched, as already mentioned, to close all the pa.s.ses on the east, and this done, and his presence being required elsewhere, he had departed, leaving merely a few squadrons behind as a guard. He and they both considered it impossible for the Mongols to force a pa.s.sage on this side, so well had they blocked the roads.

Like most of the fighting men of those days, the Hungarian army received very little in the way of regular pay, and nothing in the way of rations. It lived upon what it could get! and what would have been theft and robbery at any other time, was considered quite lawful when the men were under arms.

The troops lived well at first. To annex a few sheep, calves, oxen, and to shoot deer, wild boar, or buffalo was part of the daily routine, for the forests abounded in game. They were at no loss for wine either, as some of the n.o.bles supplied them from their cellars.

On the whole, therefore, the men were well entertained; and, little suspecting the serious campaign in store, looked forward to a brush with the Mongols as involving little more danger than their favourite hunting expeditions.

And then, one morning they noticed a peculiar sound in the distance. In one way it was familiar enough, for it reminded them of a hunt, but a hunt on such a scale as none of them had ever witnessed yet. For it was as if all the game in the dense, almost impa.s.sable forests on the frontier were being driven towards them by thousands of beaters, driven slowly and gradually, but always nearer and nearer.

They wondered among themselves who the huntsmen could be, and thought that the great lords had perhaps called out the peasantry by way of beguiling the time, and that, as the roads were closed against the Mongols, they were coming through the woods.

But there was no shouting, which was remarkable, and they could hear no human voices, nothing but the hollow sound as of repeated blows and banging, which came to them from time to time, when the wind was in a particular quarter, like the mutter of distant storms.

Two days later, this weird and ghastly noise could be heard till dark.

No one could imagine what was going on.

But the detachments whose especial duty it was to watch the frontier appeared to be under a spell, for they pa.s.sed their time in the usual light-hearted way, and went out shooting and hunting in large parties.

They had never known the forest so full of game of all sorts before--wild buffalo, bears, wolves, deer, fawns--as it had been since "the woods had begun to talk," as they expressed it.

By the third day the distant sounds had altered their character, and were no longer like the ordinary noise made by sportsmen and their beaters, but more puzzling still.

Then came orders to the various detachments from the Palatine, that a few bodies of men were to be posted here and there, rather as spies than guards, while the rest hastened with all speed to join the main army in Hungary proper.

Hedervary did not so much as hint that the "Tartars were coming"; but he was well aware of the fact, for he had good spies, and that even among the Russians who had coalesced with the Mongols.

Early on the morning of their departure some of the men thought they saw scattered clouds of smoke rising over the forests to the east, but they were a "happy-go-lucky" set, as so many were in those days, and they troubled their heads very little as to what it might mean.

Someone suggested that, as the blacksmiths were all unusually hard at work on horseshoes, of which an enormous number were wanted, no doubt the charcoal burners were especially busy too; and there were many of them in the woods and forests; in all probability, the smoke proceeded from their fires. And with this supposed explanation all were content.

But suddenly, to the now accustomed sound of beating and knocking, which was still drawing nearer and nearer, there was added another of a different character.

Hitherto, the woods had "talked," and echo had answered them; now the forest "roared." The wind had been light at early morning; now it was piping and whistling, swaying the trees to and fro, making the tall stems tremble, and knock their long bare arms one against the other.

One of the Palatine's small detachments of about 150 men was stationed in the mountainous district of Marmaros, with a lofty and precipitous wall of rock bounding one side of the camp. The men were just preparing for a start, when a huge buffalo made its sudden appearance on the edge of the cliff far above their heads. It had come so far with a rush, but the sight of the great depth below had stopped it short, and it stood with its feet rooted to the ground for a moment--only for a moment, however. It raised its head, and seemed to sniff the air, and then, with one short, faltering bellow, it leapt and fell into their midst, upsetting one horse, and wounding a couple of men.

This was the first; but after the first came a second, after the second, a third!

Helter-skelter the troops retired from the dangerous spot, and from a safe distance they counted five buffalo, one after the other, which dashed to the edge of the cliff, as if in terror from their pursuers, and took the fatal leap. Only one was able to rise again, and that one just gave one look round, dug its forefeet into the ground, and then rushed on straight ahead as if there were a pack of hounds at its heels.

Shortly after, while the troops were riding down the narrow valley at the foot of the mountains, they could hear the howl of wolves coming nearer and nearer, and a pack so large that no one could even guess their number, was seen to be scampering down the dale; some were clattering down the cliffs, which were more sloping here, while the rest tore wildly forward, pa.s.sing close beside, and even in among the horses, many of which were maddened with terror, and bolted with their riders.

An hour or so later, when the little troop had succeeded in quieting the horses, and had advanced some way on its journey amid many perils and dangers, the cause of all this excitement among the wild animals was suddenly revealed. The forest was on fire! It was crackling in the flames, burning like a furnace beneath a canopy of black smoke.

The Mongols had fired it on this side, while in another direction they had opened a way forty fathoms wide, through woods over hill and dale, through walls of rock, and across streams and ditches. They were making ready their way before them, and were advancing along it upon the unready country.

Wherever they were reached by the fire, the trees crashed down one upon another; ravens, crows, jackdaws, and all the winged creatures of the woods, were flying to and fro above the trees, in dense, dark clouds, and with loud cries and cawing; bears came along muttering, flying before the fire and smoke, climbing trees from which they did not dare descend again, and with which they perished together.

As already mentioned, Batu Khan's army was preceded by pioneers with axes and hatchets, who drove their road straight forward, through or over obstacles of all kinds. Nothing stopped them, and often their own dead bodies helped to fill up the ditches and trenches; for what was the value of their lives to the Mongols? Absolutely nothing! since they were taken for the most part from the people whom they had conquered.

As soon as the awful news of their advance spread through the country, the people fled without another thought of defending their homes or resisting the enemy, or of anything else but saving their lives and what little property they could carry with them in their wild stampede.