The Pobratim: A Slav Novel

by P. Jones

  CHAPTER XIII

  STARIGRAD

  The caique reached Trieste in time to meet the _Spera in Dio_, which,having discharged her goods, had taken a cargo of timber for Lissa.At Trieste, the _pobratim_ bade good-bye to Captain Panajotti; andhe, having found there two of his countrymen, was able to set sailfor the Levant. From Lissa the _Spera in Dio_ returned to Trieste,and there her cargo of sardines was disposed of to great advantage.

  The young men had been sailing now six months with the captain, andhe, seeing that they were not only good pilots, clever sailors,reliable young men, but sharp in business to boot, agreed to let themhave the whole management of the ship, for he was obliged to go toFiume, and take charge of another brig of his, that had lost hercaptain. Moreover, being well off, and having re-married, he was nowgoing to take his young wife on a cruise with him.

  "And who was the captain of your brig in Fiume?"

  "One of my late wife's brothers, and as he seems to have disapprovedof my second marriage, he has discarded my ship."

  "And is he married?"

  "Of course, he is; did you ever know any unmarried captain? Land ratsalways seem to look upon marriage as a halter, whilst we sailors getspliced as young as possible. Perhaps it's because we are so littlewith our better halves that we are happy in married life."

  "And when you give up the sea will you settle down in Fiume?"

  "I suppose so, though Fiume is not my birth-place."

  "Isn't it? Where were you born, then?"

  "Where the dog-king was born!"

  "And where was the dog-king born? For, never having heard of himbefore, I am now quite as wise as I was," said Uros.

  "Well, they say that Atilla, who was a very great king, was born atStarigrad, the old castle, which, as you know, is not very far fromNona. Starigrad is said to have been built on the ruins of a very oldcity, which was once called Orsopola, but which now hardly deservesthe name of a town. The village where I was born goes by the name ofTorre-Vezza, but we in Slav know it as Kulina-pass-glav."

  "What a peculiar name, The Tower of the Dog's Head," added Milenko.

  "Yes, it is also called The Tower of the Dog-KingKulina-pass-kraljev."

  "And why?" asked Uros.

  "Because it was the tower where Atilla was born, and as the kinghappened to have a dog's ears, the place was called after him TheTower of the Dog-King."

  "How very strange that a king should have a dog's ears."

  "Not so very strange either. Once, in olden times, a king actuallyhad ass's ears; but that was long before constitutional monarchy: Idoubt whether people would stand such things nowadays. Somehistorians say that he had a dog's head, but that, I daresay, is anexaggeration; and perhaps, after all, he had only big hairy ears,something like those of a poodle. Anyhow, if the legend is to bebelieved, it does not seem wonderful that Atilla was somewhat of amongrel and doggish in his behaviour."

  "Let's hear the legend," said Uros.

  Thereupon, the captain and his two mates, lying flat on theirstomachs, propped themselves up on their elbows, and began to puff attheir cigarettes. Then the captain narrated as follows:

  About four hundred years after the birth of our Lord and SaviourJesus Christ, there lived in Hungary a King who was exceedinglyhandsome. The Hungarians are, as you must know, a very fine race; butthis monarch was so remarkably good-looking, that no woman ever casther eyes upon him without falling in love with him at once. This Kinghad a daughter who was as beautiful a girl as he was handsome a man,and all the kings and princes were anxious to marry her. She had agreat choice of suitors, for they flocked to Hungary from the fourquarters of the globe. She, however, discarded them all, for shecould not find the man of her choice amongst them. Some were toofair, others a shade too dark; the one was too short, the other wastall and lanky. In fact, one batch of kings went off and anothercame, but with no better success; fair-bearded and blue-eyedemperors were the same to her as negro potentates, she hardly lookedupon either.

  The King at first was vexed to find his daughter so hard to please,then he grew angry at seeing her throw away so many good chances, andat last he decided that she was to marry the very first man thatshould come to ask for her hand, fair or dark, yellow orcopper-coloured.

  The suitor who happened to present himself was a powerful chief ofsome nomadic tribe. He was not exactly a handsome man, for he wasshock-headed, short and squat, with sturdy, muscular limbs, big,broad hands and square feet. As for his face, it was quite flat, witha pug nose, thick lips and sharp teeth. As for his ears, they werecanine in their shape, large and hairy.

  Though he was not exactly a monster, still the girl refused him,horrified. The man, gloating upon her, said, with a leer, that a timemight come when she would lick her chops to have him. Nay, he grinnedand showed his dog-like teeth as he uttered this very low expression,rendering it ever so much the more obnoxious by emitting a low caninelaugh, something between a whine and a merry bark. The poor Princessshuddered with horror and said she would as lief be wedded to one ofher father's curs.

  The father now got into a towering passion and asked the Princess whyshe would not marry, and the damsel, melting into tears, and almostfainting with grief and shame, confessed that she was in love withhim--her own father.

  Fancy the King's dismay!

  He had been bored the whole of his life by all the women, not only ofhis Court, but of his whole kingdom, who were madly in love with him.Wherever he went there was always a crowd of young girls and olddames, married women and widows, gazing at him as if he had been themoon; grey eyes and green eyes, black eyes and blue eyes, were alwaysstaring, ogling or leering at him; and, amidst deep-drawn sighs, healways heard the same words: "Ah! how handsome he is!" His fatalbeauty made more ravages amongst the fair sex even than the plague orthe small-pox; the cemeteries and lunatic asylums were peopled withhis victims. His dreams were haunted by the sighs and cries of theselove-sick females. At last he had decided to live in a remote castle,in the midst of a forest, where he would see and be seen by as fewwomen as possible; but even here he could not find rest, his owndaughter had not escaped the infection. That was too much for the poorKing. He at once banished the Princess, not only from his sight--fromhis castle--but even from his kingdom. He wished thereby to strikethe rest of womankind with terror.

  The poor girl, like Cain, wandered alone upon the surface of theearth; bearing her father's curse, she was shunned by everyone whomet her; for the Hungarians have ever been loyal to their kings.

  She was, however, not quite alone; for as she left the royal palaceshe was met on her way by an ugly-looking cur, with a shaggy head, ashort and squat body, sturdy muscular legs, big paws, a pug nose,sharp white teeth, and huge flapping ears. He was not exactly a finedog, but he seemed good-natured enough; and as he followed her steps,he looked at her piteously with his little eyes.

  She walked about for three days; then, sick at heart, weary andfaint, she sank down, ready to die. She was on a lonely highway, withmoors all covered with heather on either side; so that she could seenothing but the limitless plain stretching far away in the distanceas far as the eye could reach. In that immense waste, with the brightblue sky overhead, and the brown-reddish heath all around, where nota tree, not a shrub, not a rock was to be seen, she walked on and on;but she always seemed to be in the very centre of an unending circle.Then a feeling of terror came over her; the utter loneliness in whichshe found herself overpowered her. And now the mongrel cur, which hadremained behind, came running after her, the poor beast, which atfirst she had hardly noticed, comforted her; he was now far more thana companion or a protector, he was her only friend.

  She sank down by the wayside, to pat the faithful dog and to rest awhile; but when she tried to rise, her legs were so stiff that theyrefused to carry her. However, the sun, that never tarries, went onand left her far behind. She saw his fiery disc sink like a glowingball far behind the verge of the moor; then darkness, little bylittle, spread itself over the earth. Night being more
oppressivethan daylight, the tears began to trickle down her cheeks; then shelay down on the grass, and began to sob bitterly and to bewail andmoan over her ill-timed fate. She was again comforted; for the uglycur came to sniff at her, to rub his nose against her cheeks, andlick her hands, as if to soothe and assuage her sorrow.

  Tired as she was her heavy eyelids drooped, shut themselves, and soonshe sank into a deep sleep.

  That night she had a most wonderful vision. Soon she felt her bodybeginning to get drowsy and the pain in her weary head to pass away;then consciousness gradually vanished. Then it seemed that she sawtwo genii of gigantic stature appear in front of her; the mightiestof the two bent down, caught her up as if she had been a tiny babyonly a few months old, clasped her to his breast, then spread out hishuge bat-like wings and flew away with her up into the air. It waspleasant to nestle in his brawny arms and feel the wind rush aroundher. He carried her with the rapidity of the lightning across theendless plains of Hungary, over the blue waters of the Danube, overlakes and snow-capped chains of mountains, and wide gaping chasmswhich looked like the mouths of hell. The genius at last alighted onthe summit of a very high peak, and from there he slid down, makingthus a deep glen that went to the sea-shore. The other genius took upthe dog in his arms, transported him likewise through the air, andperched himself on the top of another neighbouring peak. Themountain-tops on which they alighted were the Ruino and Sveti Berdoof the Vellibic chain. Once on their feet again the two Afrites laiddown their burdens, and built--till early morning--a huge castle ofmassive stone, not far from the sea. Their task done, they placed thePrincess in a beautiful bed, all inlaid with silver, ivory andmother-of-pearl; they whispered in her ear that henceforth, and forthe remainder of her life, she would have to keep away from the sightof men, for her beauty might have been as fatal as her father's hadbeen. Then they rose up in the air, vanished, or rather, melted away,like the morning mist.

  You can fancy the Princess's surprise the next morning when--onawaking--she found herself stretched on a soft couch, between finelawn sheets, in a lofty chamber, finer by far even than the one shehad had in her father's palace. She rubbed her eyes, thinking thatshe was dreaming, and then lay for a few moments, half asleep andhalf awake, hardly daring to move lest she might return, but toosoon, to the bitter misery of life. All at once, as she lay in thispleasant sluggish state, she felt something moist and cold againsther cheek. She shuddered, awoke quite, turned round and foundherself in still closer contact with the cur's pug nose.

  The Princess drew back astonished, unable to understand whether shewas awake or asleep, and, as her eyes fell on the cur, she wassurprised to see a kind of broad and merry grin on the dog's face,for the mongrel evidently seemed to be enjoying her surprise.

  The young girl continued to look round, bewildered, for, instead ofbeing on the dusty roadside, where she had dropped down out of sheerweariness, she was lying on a comfortable bed, in a splendid room.She stared at the costly tapestries which covered the walls, at thebeautiful inlaid furniture, at the damask curtains all wrought ingold, at the crystal chandelier hanging down from the ceiling; and asshe gazed at all these, and many other things, the cur, with his bighairy front paws on the edge of the couch, was standing on his hindlegs, looking at the beautiful young girl.

  The poor girl blushed to see the cur leering at her so doggedly. Sherose quickly, put on the beautiful dresses that were lying on a chairready for her, and went about the house.

  What she had taken for a dream, or a vision, was, in fact, nothingbut plain reality. She had, during the night, been carried from theplains of Hungary down to the shores of the Adriatic, and shut up ina fairy castle, alone with the faithful dog. From her windows shecould see the mountains on which the two Afrites had alighted, and onthe other side the sun-lit, translucent waters of the deep blue sea.

  The castle, which seemed to rise out of the steep inaccessible cragson which it was perched, was built of huge blocks of stone. It hadthick machicolated towers at every corner, gates with drawbridges andbarbicans. The apartments within this stronghold, the remains ofwhich are still to be seen, were as sumptuous and as comfortable asany king's daughter might wish. Her protectors had provided her withall the necessities of daily life, for every day, at twelve, a daintydinner, cooked by invisible hands, was laid out in the lofty hall,whilst in the morning a cup of exquisite chocolate was ready for heron the table in her bedroom; besides, she found all that could induceher to pass her time pleasantly, for she had statues, pictures, birdsand flowers. She could walk in the small garden in the midst of thesquare court, or under the marble colonnade that surrounded it; shecould stitch, sew, embroider, play the lute, or paint. Still, she wasquite alone, and time lay heavy on her hands. She could see, from thewindows of the second floor, people at a distance stop and stare atthe wonderful castle that had risen out of a rock, like a mushroom,in the space of a night; but nobody ever saw her. Alone with the curfrom morn to night, from year's end to year's end; he followed her,step by step, whithersoever she went, and whatever she did he wouldwag his tail approvingly. If she sat down, he would squat on hishaunches, on a stool opposite, and gloat on her with his little eyesso persistently that she felt her head grow quite dizzy, and shealmost fancied that she had a human being sitting there in front ofher, watching lovingly her slightest movement; and then the strangestfancies flitted through her brain.

  Several times she had tried, as a pastime, to teach the dog sometricks; but she soon gave it up, for he always inspired her with akind of awe. He was such a knowing kind of a cur, that he invariablyseemed to read all her thoughts within her brain, and, winking ather, did the very thing she wanted him to do, before she had eventried to teach him the trick. Then, as he saw her open her eyeswonderingly, he would look at her, grinning, as if he were making funof her; or else he sniffed at her in a patronising kind of way, as ifhe would say:

  "Pooh! what a very silly kind of girl you are. Couldn't you, a humanbeing, think of something better than that?"

  It happened one day that, as they sat opposite each other, lookinginto each other's eyes--he as quiet as a stone dog on a gate, shewith her tapering fingers interlocked, twirling her thumbs as a meansof passing her time--the Princess was thinking of her many rejectedsuitors, whose hearts she had broken; even of the last one, theshort, squat man, with sturdy limbs, large hands and feet, a shaggyhead and huge ears. And she sighed, for though he was much more of aSatyr than like her Hyperean father, still he was a man.

  Thereupon, she looked at the cur, with its sturdy limbs, its shaggyhead and huge ears; and she sighed again. The dog winked at her.

  "Cur," she said to herself, "you are ugly enough; still, if you werea man I think I could fall in love with you."

  The cur stood on his hind legs, his head a little on one side; therewas a knowing, impudent look in his eyes. Then he uttered a kind ofdoggish laugh, something between a whine and a bark; then, aftershowing his teeth in a grinning kind of way, he licked his chops ather sneeringly.

  The words of her last suitor were just then ringing in her ears. Shelooked at the cur in amazement, for she almost fancied he had utteredthose selfsame words.

  The cur was evidently mocking her, as he rolled his shaggy headabout, and gloated at her just as her last suitor had done.Thereupon, she blushed deeply, and covering her face with her hands,she burst into tears.

  The poor dog thereupon came to lick the tears that oozed through herfingers, so that she felt somewhat comforted by the affection whichthis poor mongrel showed her.

  This, thought she, is the end of every haughty beauty who is hard toplease and who thinks no one is good enough for her. She rejects allthe best matches in early youth, she turns up her nose at everyeligible _parti_, until--when age creeps on and beauty fades--she ishappy to accept the first boor that pops the question. As forherself, she had not even a boor whom she could love, not even thechurlish man with the huge ears.

  That evening, undressing before going to bed, the Princess stood, sadand
disconsolate, in front of her mirror. She was still of a radiantbeauty, quite as handsome as she had ever been; but alas! she knewthat her beauty would soon begin to fade in that lonely tower.

  What had she done to the gods to deserve the punishment she wasundergoing? Why had the genii shut her up in that tower to pine thereunheeded and unknown? Why had they not left her to wander about theworld, or even die upon those blasted heaths of her country? Deathwas better than having to waste away in a living death, doomed toeternal imprisonment.

  It was a splendid night in early May. The moon, on one side, silveredthe placid waters of the Adriatic, whilst it gleamed on the stillsnow-capped tops of the Vellebic, on the other. The breeze that camein through the open casement wafted in the smell of the sea, and ofthe sage, the hyssop and lavender that grew all around. A nightingalewas trilling in an amorous strain, blackbirds whistled in plaintivenotes, just as in the daytime the wild doves had cooed their eternallove-song to their mate.

  The poor girl leaned her plump and snowy arms on the white marblewindow-sill and sighed. How lovely the world is, she thought, andthen she remained as if entranced by an ecstatic vision. Within theamber moon that rolled on high and flooded all below with mellowlight, the Princess saw a lover with his lass. Their mouths wereclosely pressed in one long kiss, as thirsty lips that cleave untothe brim of some ambrosial aphrodisiac cup. Above, the stars wereshining forth with love, whilst, down below, the whole earth seemedto pant; the night-bird's lay, the lisping waves' low voice, and theinsect's chirp all spoke of unknown bliss. The very air, all ladenwith the strong scent of roses, lilies and sweet asphodel, was likethe breath of an enamoured youth who whispered in her ear sweet wordsof love. A scathing flame was kindled in her breast, and in her veinsher blood was all aglow; her shattered body seemed to melt like wax,such was the unknown yearning which she felt upon that lovely nightin early May. With reeling, aching head and tottering steps, theforlorn maiden slowly crept to bed, and while the hot tears trickleddown her cheeks, oblivion steeped her senses in soft sleep.

  That night the wandering moon, that came peeping through the loftywindows, saw a strange sight. Upon her round disc a broad, sallowface could now be plainly seen, grinning good-humouredly at what shebeheld.

  That night the Princess had a dream, or rather a vision. No soonerdid she shut her eyes and her senses began to wander and losethemselves, than she saw the shaggy cur come into the room, with hisusual waddling gait, wagging his tail according to his wont. He cameup to her bed, stood upon his hind legs, put his big paws upon thewhite sheets, and began to look at her just in the very same way hehad done that morning when she awoke to find herself shut up withinthe battlemented walls of that lonely tower by the sea. She wasalmost amused to see him stare at her so gravely, for he looked likea wise doctor standing by some patient's bed. Until now there wasnothing very strange in this vision, but now comes the most wonderfuland interesting part, which shows how truth and fancy, theoccurrences of the day before and long-forgotten facts, are oftenblended together to make up the plot of our dreams.

  As the Princess was looking upon the dog's paws, she saw them change,not all at once, but quietly undergo a slow process oftransformation. They, little by little, grew longer and shapedthemselves into fingers and broad hands. She looked up--in her sleep,of course--and beheld the fore part of the legs gradually lengthenthemselves into two sturdy arms. The dog's shaggy head becamesomewhat blurred, and in its stead a man's tawny mass of hairappeared. In fact, after a few minutes, the last rejected suitor,who, indeed, had always borne a strong likeness to the ugly cur thathad followed her in her exile, now appeared before her.

  He was not a handsome man; no, far from handsome; still, on thewhole, it was better to have as her companion a human being than adog. Still, strange to say, she now liked this man on account of hisstrong resemblance to the faithful dumb cur, the only friend she hadnow had for years.

  "You said that if I were a man you could love me," quoth he, insomething like a soft and gentle growl, sniffing at her as he spoke,evidently unable to forbear from his long-acquired canine customs."Well, now, do you love me?"

  The young girl--in her dream--stretched out her hand and patted theman's dishevelled hair as she had been wont to caress the cur'sshaggy head; such is the force of habit.

  "I told you that the time would come when you would lick your chopsto have me back; so you see my words, after all, have come true."

  It was a churlish remark, but the young girl had got so accustomed tothe cur's strange ways, that she did not resent it; she even allowedthe man to kiss her hands, just as the mongrel had been wont to lickthem, which shows how careful we ought to be in avoiding bad habits.

  It was then that the rolling, rollicking moon came peeping throughthe window with a broad smile on her chubby round face, just as ifshe was approving of the sight she saw.

  On the morrow, when the Princess awoke, she looked for the cureverywhere, but, strange to say, he was nowhere to be found. Sheransacked the whole house, but he had disappeared; she peered throughthe barbicans, glanced down from the battlements; she mounted to thetop of the highest tower, strained her eyes, and gazed on thesurrounding country, but the dog was nowhere to be seen.

  A sense of loneliness and languor came over her. It was so dreary tobe shut up in those large and lofty halls, that, at times, the verysound of her steps made her shiver. Her very food became distastefulto her.

  From that day--being quite alone--she longed to have, at least, alittle child which she might love, and which might help her tobeguile the long hours of solitude. Every day her maternal instinctsgrew stronger within her, and every evening, as she stood leaning onthe marble window-sill, she prayed the kind genii, who had taken pityon her when she had been wandering on the moor, and almost dying ofweariness, of hunger and of thirst, to be kind to her, and bring hera tiny little baby to take the place of her lost cur, for lifewithout a child was quite without an aim.

  Months passed; the blossoms of the trees had fallen, the fruit hadripened, the harvest had been gathered, the days had grown shorter,the sea was now always lashed into fury, all the summer-birds hadflown far away, the others were all hushed; only the raucous cries ofthe gulls were heard as they flew past the tower where she dwelt. Thedays had grown shorter and shorter, the wind was cold, the weatherwas bleak, when at last her wish was granted.

  It was on a dreary, stormy night in early February; the Princess waslying on her bed, unable to sleep, when all at once the window wasdashed open, and a huge stork flew in. It was the very stork, theysay, that, years afterwards, was so fatal to the town of Aquileja,not very far from there. At that moment the poor Princess was soterrified that she quite lost her senses; but when she came back toherself, she found a tiny baby--not an hour old--lying in bed by herside.

  The wind was blowing in a most terrific way. The Quarnero, which isalways stormy, was nothing but one mass of white foam. The huge wavesdashed together, like fleecy rams butting against each other. Thebillows ever rose higher, whilst the waters of the lowering cloudsoverhead came pouring down upon the flood below. All the elementsseemed unchained against that lonely tower. The clouds came pouringdown in waterspouts upon it; the breakers dashed against it; the tworavines, the big and the little Plas Kenizza--formed by the genii asthey had slid down the mountains--were now huge torrents, rollingdown with a roaring noise against the white walls of the tower,making it look more like an enormous lighthouse on a rock than aprincely castle. The thunder never stopped rumbling; the forkedlightning darted incessantly down upon the highest pinnacles and thewhole stronghold, from its battlements down to its very base. Such aterrific storm had never been known for ages; in fact, not since thedays when the mighty Julius had been murdered.

  By the lurid light of the incessant flashes, the Princess first sawher infant boy; and she heard its first wail amongst the deafeningdin of the falling thunder-bolts. With motherly fondness, she pressedthe baby to her breast; whilst her heart was beating as if it wereabout to break
. What a thrill of unutterable bliss she felt thatmoment; but, alas! all her joy passed into sorrow when she perceivedthat her beautiful baby--beautiful, at least, to a mother's eyes--hadtwo dear little dog's ears.

  Dogs' ears are by no means ugly--although they are occasionallycropped. Why was it, then, that the Princess saw them with horror anddismay?

  Ears, the young mother thought, are the very worst features manpossesses. They stand out prominently and look uncouth, or theysprawl out along the sides of the head; they are either as colourlessas if they had just been boiled, or as red as boiled lobsters.Anyhow, she was somewhat fastidious about the shape and tint of thoseappendages, so that now the sight of those huge hairy lobes wasperfectly loathsome to her, and as she looked upon them she burstinto tears. The poor forlorn baby, feeling itself snubbed, waswailing by her side. After a little while she took up her infant; thedisgust she felt was stronger than ever; moreover, she was thoroughlydisappointed. She had begged for a baby, not for a little puppy. Inher vexation--she was a very self-willed girl, as princesses oftenare--she took up the babe, got out of the bed, and in two strides shewas by the window. She would cast the little monster into the darknight from where it had come. She herself did not want it.

  As she reached the open window the two genii, her protectors, stoodbefore her.

  "Stop, unnatural mother!" cried the taller of the two. "What are youabout to do?"

  The Princess shrank back, frightened and trembling. There are a fewthings at which we do not exactly like to be caught: infanticide isone of them.

  "Know," said the Afrite, in a voice like a peal of thunder, "that thechild, though with dog's ears, is not only of royal lineage, but heis, moreover, the son of a great genius. About four hundred years agoanother Virgin gave birth to a Child, who, later on, was put to deathupon a cross because the people did not want him as their king. Well,now, the followers of that virgin's child are our bitterest enemies;our only hope is in your son; he will grow up to become a mightywarrior and avenge us. He will waste the towns on which the goldcross glistens, he will make their kings his captives, and all theirpriests his slaves. The blood of the Christians will run in torrents,even as the rain comes down the ravines to-night; his shafts will belike the thunderbolts that have fallen on your tower to-night. Hisname--which will be heard all over the world like the rumbling in theclouds--will be The Scourge of God, and he will chastise men fortheir evil deeds. Wherever he passes the grass will wither under hisfeet, and the waste will be his wake. Only, that all these thingsmight come to pass, thou must well bear in mind that his head benever shorn nor his beard shaven; let the tawny locks of his hairfall about his shoulders like a lion's mane, for all his strengthwill lie therein. As soon as his arm is able to wield a weapon, thetrail of blood flowing from a heifer's wound will show him where thesword of the great god of war lies rusting in the rushes; with thatbrand in his hand all men will bow before him, or fall like grassbeneath the mower's scythe. Love alone will overcome him, and a younggirl's lust will lull him into eternal sleep. He will be versed inmagic lore, and be able to read the starry skies as a written scroll.From his very infancy he will feel a wholesome hatred for theNazarenes, his foes as well as ours."

  Having uttered these words, the Afrite rose up like smoke and fadedaway in the dark clouds.

  In the meanwhile the child grew up of a superhuman strength, short ofstature but square, and with very broad shoulders; and when he wasbut seven years of age the gates of the castle, hitherto always shut,opened themselves for him. From that time he passed his days in thedells and hollows of the mountains, chasing the wild beasts thatabounded in those gorges and in the neighbouring forests, almostinaccessible to man. His mother saw him but little, for he only cameback to the castle when heavily laden with his prey.

  He was but a youth when he organised a band of freebooters; and withtheir help he sacked and plundered all the neighbouring towns andvillages, and the plains all around were strewn with the bones of thedead. Being not only invincible, but just and generous to his men, hesoon found himself at the head of an army the like of which the worldhad never seen. He destroyed the immense town of Aquileja, thelargest city of the Adriatic coast, and even burnt down the forestwhich stretched from Ravenna to Trieste. Whithersoever he went thehouses fell, the temples and the theatres crumbled down, and he leftdesolation behind him; so that, before he had even reached the age ofmanhood, the words of the genius were fulfilled.

  At that time the old King of Hungary happened to die, leaving noheirs to ascend his throne. Anarchy desolated the land. The nobles,who were at variance as to whom they were to elect, having heard, insome mysterious way, that their beautiful Princess was still alive,and that the great conqueror who was at that time plundering Rome washer son, sent an embassy to the Princess, asking her to return to hercountry, and begging her, as a boon, to accept the crown for herchild.

  The Princess, whose name was Mor-Lak (the Daughter of Misfortune),lived to a good old age. When she died she left her name to the seaand to the channel, the waters of which bathe the town in which shedwelt; therefore, the people who live thereabouts are, to this day,called Morlacchi. If they have no more canine ears, their hair isstill as tawny as that of the dog-king, though all the otherDalmatians are dark. Moreover, if you go to Starigrad you can see, asI told you, the ruins of the Torre Vezza, the fairy tower where thevirgin's son was born; likewise the huge chasms of the Ruino and theSveti Berdo, the holy mountain where the Afrites slid down, inremembrance of which the inhabitants still call them the PaklenizzaMalo and the Paklenizza Veliko, or, the Gorges of the Big and theLittle Devil.

  A few days afterwards, the captain bade the young men good-bye, andstarted for Fiume, whilst they, having their cargo ready, set sailfor Odessa. The weather was fine, the wind was fair; therefore, thefirst voyage during which they were in sole command of the ship was amost prosperous, though a rather rough one. For during four days theyhad shipped several seas, so that they had the water up to theirwaists, and, with all that, no water to drink; but these are theincidents appertaining to a seafaring life, which sailors forget assoon as they set foot on shore.