For weeks Dora and Talabor had journeyed on, avoiding all the mainroads, travelling by the roughest, most secluded ways, and seldomfalling in with any human beings, or even seeing a living creature savethe wild animals, which had increased and become daring to anextraordinary degree.
Wolves scampered about in packs of a hundred or more, and over and overagain Talabor had been obliged to light a fire to keep them off. He haddone it with trembling, except when they were in the depths of thewoods, lest what scared the wolves should attract the Mongols.
Bears, too, had come down from the mountains, and had taken up theirquarters in the deserted castles and homesteads, and many a wandererturning into them for a night's shelter found himself confronted by oneof these shaggy monsters.
Traces of the Mongols were to be seen on all sides: dead bodies of humanbeings and animals, smouldering towns, villages, and forests; here andthere, perched upon some rocky height, would be a defiant castle, whosegarrison, if they had not deserted it, were dead or dying of hunger; insome parts, look which way they might, there was a dead body danglingfrom every tree; poisonous exhalations defiled the air; and over woods,meadows, fields, ruined villages, lay a heavy pall of smoke.
Such was the condition to which the Mongols had reduced the once smilingland. Truly it might be said, in the words of the prophet: "A firedevoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth: the land is asthe garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness."
But, though they saw their works plainly enough, the wanderers sawhardly anything of the Mongols themselves, which surprised them. Once ortwice they had narrow escapes, and had to take sudden refuge from smallparties, travelling two or three together; but they encountered nothinglike a body of men, and those whom Talabor did chance to see appeared tobe too intent on covering the ground to look much about them.
From one or two wanderers like themselves he presently learnt that theMongols were everywhere on the move, and were all going in the samedirection, southwards. But what it meant no one could guess. They weremoving with their usual extraordinary rapidity, and but few stragglerson foot were believed to be left behind.
But it might be only some fresh treachery, some trap, and the peopledared not leave the caves, caverns, thick woods, where they had hiddenthemselves, and lived, or existed, in a way hardly credible, on roots,herbs, grass, the bark of trees, some of them even eking out theirscanty provisions by a diet of small pebbles!
Needless to say that many died of hunger, while the remainder werereduced to skeletons, shadows, ghosts of their former selves.
From some of these bands of refugees Talabor heard fragmentary accountsof the horrors that had been enacted, and the events that had followedafter the battle of Mohi.
Dora had felt more and more confidence in her travelling companion asday had followed day during their terrible journey. He had spared nopains in his efforts to lighten the privations and difficulties of theway; he had thought for her, cared for her, in a hundred ways; and yetwith it all, he was just as deferential as if they had been in thecastle at home.
Miserable were the best resting places he could find for her for thenight, either in the depths of the forest or in some cavern or deepcleft of the rocks. Sometimes he was able to make her a little hut ofdry branches, roofed over with snow; and when he could do so withoutrisk of discovery, he would light a fire and cook any game that he hadbeen able to shoot in the course of the day.
But whatever the shelter he found or contrived for her, he himselfalways kept watch outside, and got what little sleep he could when thenight was past.