CHAPTER XX.
LIKE THE PHA'NIX.
It seemed too good to be true! But it was a fact that the Mongols werereally gone--gone as they had come, like one of the plagues of Egypt,for there "remained not one" in all Hungary.
As soon as King BA(C)la knew that the unexpected had come to pass, and thatthe land was clear of the enemy, he hastened home. But what a home hefound! It had been one of the fairest and richest in Europe; and now herode for whole days without seeing so much as a single human being, andhis followers had to do battle with the wild beasts, which hadmultiplied to an alarming degree. Go which way he would, he found theland uncultivated and overgrown with thorns and weeds; and when he didcome across an inhabited district, the men he encountered were not men,but spectres. The many unburied corpses, together with the sometimesaltogether indescribable kinds of food upon which the people had had tosubsist, had produced pestilence of divers kinds, which carried offmany of those who had escaped the Mongols.
It was only a year or so since the first irruption of the Mongols, butthe land was a chaos.
How the King laboured with might and main to restore the "years whichthe locust had eaten," and how he succeeded are matters which belong tohistory.
Very gradually and cautiously the people ventured forth from the dens inwhich they had concealed themselves. At first they came only one or twoat a time, to reconnoitre; but when they were convinced that the enemyhad utterly withdrawn himself, the joyful news was quickly conveyed tothose who were still in hiding, and they flocked back to the ruinedtowns and villages, which began at once to rise from their ashes.
One by one the bells pealed forth again from the church-towers, andmany, many a cross was put up in the graveyards to the memory of thosewho returned no more; not only of those known to be dead, but of thosewho had simply disappeared, no one could say how, but whose bodies werenever found, and who might therefore have been carried away to a livingdeath as slaves. Few indeed of the captives were ever seen again. Many ahamlet and small village of the plains had been wiped out as completelyas if it had never existed, and some of these were never rebuilt, thoughtheir names live in the neighbourhood to the present day.
Many a young man who had been but a "poor relation" before the flood,now found himself the heir to large estates and great wealth.
Once more the plough was to be seen at work among the furrows, drawn nowby an ox, now by a horse, and not infrequently by the farmer himself,the old owner or the new. Where there had been ten inhabitants there wasnow one; but that one seemed to have inherited all the energy, vigour,and hopefulness of the other nine, so fiercely he worked.
Buried treasures were dug up again, though often not by those who hadburied them; many remained undiscovered for centuries; many have notbeen found to this day.
The wolves still roamed the plains as if the world belonged to them;they would even enter the scantily populated villages and carry offinfants from the cradle, and from the very arms of their mothers. Cloudsof ravens and crows still hovered over the countless bodies of those whohad fallen victims to the Mongols or to starvation, exposure, disease.Both birds and beasts disputed the possession of the land with itsreturning inhabitants.
Of the forty members of the Szirmay family there now remained but fourmale representatives: Master Peter, his nephew Akos, and two otherswhose names have not come down to us; and all four of these were nowwealthy landed proprietors.
Dora had been unable to communicate with her father; Gabriel had neverreached him; and when at length Master Peter was able to re-visit hisfaraway castle, he did so not knowing whether his daughter were alive ordead. He found the whole place in ruins; for Dora had been only tooright in her conjectures. The Mongols had paid it another visit not longafter her departure; and, finding the house deserted and empty, hadvented their rage upon it in such a way that nothing remained to receivetheir owner but the bare walls.
Among the ruins, however, he discovered old Moses, JakA cubed, and a servantor two, all in a famishing condition. From them he learnt how Dora hadleft the house only just in time to escape the second attack; but as towhat had befallen her since, they could, of course, tell him nothing.She had intended to join him in Dalmatia, and she had never arrivedthere. So much only was certain, and when he thought of the perils shemust have encountered, and the awful sights he had himself seen by theway, his heart sank within him. And, worst of all, there was nothing tobe done, nothing! but to wait, wait, wait, in a state of constantanxiety as to what he might any day hear.
But supposing that she should have been preserved through all, and wereonly waiting till she heard news of him, or perhaps until she were ableto travel! She would certainly hear in time, wherever she might be, ofthe King's return--she would go to him for news of her father--shewould hear that he was alive, and she would come back to the old home tofind him; so there he must stay!
Master Peter was sufficiently practical to reflect that if his daughterappeared one day without warning, he would want a roof to shelter her,and to work he set making preparations accordingly, though with a heavyheart.
Yet the work did him good. It cheered him to see the labourers repairingthe walls and roofing in what had been her own room, for sometimes itbeguiled him into thinking that Dora must certainly be coming, would bethere perhaps before the place was ready for her, and then he would urgethe workmen to greater speed.
He was watching and superintending as usual one day, growing more andmore down-hearted as he reckoned the many weeks, the months which hadslipped past since he had left Dalmatia, when the clatter of horse-hoofsroused him. Most people were finding enough to do at home just now, andMaster Peter was never more ready to welcome anyone--anyone who mightbring him the tidings he longed for, and yet dreaded, or at least tellhim news of some sort which would divert his thoughts for the time.
He hurried forward to meet the visitor as he clattered into thecourtyard, and--did his eyes deceive him? or was it indeed his old pagewho was bowing before him?
Talabor the page! Talabor! Any old face was welcome, but--suddenly heremembered! Talabor had left the castle with Dora, he had come backwithout her!
Master Peter could do nothing but look at the young man, for his lipsrefused to utter a word; and he put up his hand with an imploringgesture, as one who would ward off an expected blow.
What was it Talabor was saying? That she was alive, safe, well! Dora wasalive and well! Then--where was she? and why was she not with him?
It was a minute or two before he could take it in; for, his tongue onceloosed, he poured forth his questions so fast that Talabor had no chanceof replying to them. But, when at last he did understand that Dora waswith "Aunt Orsolya," that she had wanted to set out with Talabor as soonas ever the roads were considered safe, that in fact she had begged andprayed her hostess to let her go, but that the old lady would not hearof her doing so, and had insisted on sending Talabor first--why then,with a good-humoured "Just like Aunt Orsolya!" Master Peter hastilydecided that Talabor must set out with him again that very day, and takehim to her.
Horse tired? what did that matter? Thank Heaven, he had a horse or twostill in the stable! and catching sight of Moses, he shouted the goodnews and his orders together.
Talabor had hidden the furniture, the plate? Very well, very well! somuch the better, but they could wait! Later on no doubt he would beproperly grateful, but what would he have cared for a gold mine justnow? He had no thought for anything but how to reach Dora at theearliest possible moment, bring her home, and never let her out of hissight again whatever might betide.
Orsolya had remained in the cavern until all apprehension of the returnof the Mongols was over; and then she had betaken herself to the "barn"in Frata, with quite a regiment of poor, homeless folk, whom shesupported as best she could. There Master Peter found her and Dora; andthere, too, he met his nephew Akos, and heard from him how he hadescaped with MAiria from the Kun massacre, and heard from Dora how shehad become quite attached to his bride, and no lon
ger wondered at hercousin's choice.
There is little more to say. But two or three months later, when MasterPeter and his daughter had not only been restored to one another, butwere once more at home, when the castle had been rebuilt, the hiddentreasures found uninjured and brought back to the light of day, whenDora had recovered the effects of her terrible journey and was beginningsometimes to feel as if its horrors were a dream--she received an offerof marriage from the haughty Paul HA(C)dervAiry, who had lost his wife inDalmatia, and was now willing enough to conform to ancient usage andbestow himself upon her cousin, "his first love," as he was pleased tocall her, the only child of the now wealthy Master Peter, and theheiress of his large estates.
It was very magnanimous of him, he felt, and he expected Dora and herfather to see the matter in the same light, and to show theirappreciation of the honour he was doing them. Great therefore was hisastonishment, when he received, not the willing assent he expected, but"a basket," or in other words a refusal, courteously worded, butunmistakably decided.
He was even more than astonished, he was annoyed, mortified, for"secrets" of this kind were sure to leak out, even though the partiesconcerned held their tongues. There would certainly be some kind friendto spread abroad the news, that Paul HA(C)dervAiry had been refused!
Little as he cared for Paul, Master Peter was gratified by the proposal,if only because it would set Dora right in the eyes of the world.Possibly he would have been pleased to see her the great man's wife, inspite of all that had come and gone, but if so, he cared for her toomuch to press his views, and when Dora herself asked his consent to hermarriage with Talabor, he was not the man to say her nay! How could he,when but for Talabor he would have had no daughter, whether to give orto keep? And now he would give and keep too, for she could and mustalways live with him, and this reflection consoled him for any regret hemight have felt at not having a more notable son-in-law, with afamily-castle and estates of his own.
A few words as to Akos, or rather his wife, Aunt Orsolya's ward, MAiria,who had shared her retreat in the cave. Who she was, was never exactlyknown to the world in general. In Hungary she was always said to be aTransylvanian relation of the Szirmays, while in Transylvania she passedfor a Hungarian member of the same family. But how she came to be placedin Aunt Orsolya's charge was a secret never divulged. One thing struckpeople as strange, and it was this: Akos had been well known as a friendof the Kunok, so that, if the Kun King had confided to him the placewhere he had hidden his treasure, that was nothing remarkable; nor wasanyone astonished to hear that Akos had unearthed it and delivered it upto the King, or that the latter had made it over to the Queen. But whyshould the Queen have given everything to MAiria, when her own stock ofjewellery must surely have needed replenishing?
More surprised still would people have been, had they seen the Queenkiss the girl's still pale cheek, and heard her say, as she wished herall happiness, "Dear child, would that instead of giving you these, Icould restore to you those who are gone! But we have all lost so many,we have all so many, many graves to weep over!"
Yet another circumstance attracted attention, though the fact that Akoshad championed the cause of the Kunok was supposed to account for it.Many of these had returned to Hungary by invitation of the King, whowas anxious to re-people the country, if only to keep down the wildanimals.
On the first anniversary of MAiria's marriage a deputation from theseKunok came to her and Akos. To him they presented a hundred arrows andone of their famous long-bows of dog-wood, beautifully ornamented withgold; and to her they gave a coronet of no small value.