The Lady of the Shroud - Bram Stoker (phonics reader txt) 📗
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amongst our own people such news as we had.
When presently such discoveries as had been made were signalled with
flags to the Castle, it was found that the marauders had, in their
flight, followed a strangely zigzag course. It was evident that, in
trying to baffle pursuit, they had tried to avoid places which they
thought might be dangerous to them. This may have been simply a
method to disconcert pursuit. If so, it was, in a measure,
excellent, for none of those immediately following could possibly
tell in what direction they were heading. It was only when we worked
the course on the great map in the signaller’s room (which was the
old guard room of the Castle) that we could get an inkling of the
general direction of their flight. This gave added trouble to the
pursuit; for the men who followed, being ignorant of their general
intent, could not ever take chance to head them off, but had to be
ready to follow in any or every direction. In this manner the
pursuit was altogether a stern chase, and therefore bound to be a
long one.
As at present we could not do anything till the intended route was
more marked, I left the signalling corps to the task of receiving and
giving information to the moving bands, so that, if occasion served,
they might head off the marauders. I myself took Rooke, as captain
of the yacht, and swept out of the creek. We ran up north to
Dalairi, then down south to Olesso, and came back to Vissarion. We
saw nothing suspicious except, far off to the extreme southward, one
warship which flew no flag. Rooke, however, who seemed to know ships
by instinct, said she was a Turk; so on our return we signalled along
the whole shore to watch her. Rooke held The Lady—which was the
name I had given the armoured yacht—in readiness to dart out in case
anything suspicious was reported. He was not to stand on any
ceremony, but if necessary to attack. We did not intend to lose a
point in this desperate struggle which we had undertaken. We had
placed in different likely spots a couple of our own men to look
after the signalling.
When I got back I found that the route of the fugitives, who had now
joined into one party, had been definitely ascertained. They had
gone south, but manifestly taking alarm from the advancing line of
guards, had headed up again to the north-east, where the country was
broader and the mountains wilder and less inhabited.
Forthwith, leaving the signalling altogether in the hands of the
fighting priests, I took a small chosen band of the mountaineers of
our own district, and made, with all the speed we could, to cut
across the track of the fugitives a little ahead of them. The
Archimandrite (Abbot) of Spazac, who had just arrived, came with us.
He is a splendid man—a real fighter as well as a holy cleric, as
good with his handjar as with his Bible, and a runner to beat the
band. The marauders were going at a fearful pace, considering that
they were all afoot; so we had to go fast also! Amongst these
mountains there is no other means of progressing. Our own men were
so aflame with ardour that I could not but notice that they, more
than any of the others whom I had seen, had some special cause for
concern.
When I mentioned it to the Archimandrite, who moved by my side, he
answered:
“All natural enough; they are not only fighting for their country,
but for their own!” I did not quite understand his answer, and so
began to ask him some questions, to the effect that I soon began to
understand a good deal more than he did.
Letter from Archbishop Stevan Palealogue, Head of the Eastern Church
of the Blue Mountains, to the Lady Janet MacKelpie, Vissarion.
Written July 9, 1907.
HONOURED LADY,
As you wish for an understanding regarding the late lamentable
occurrence in which so much danger was incurred to this our Land of
the Blue Mountains, and one dear to us, I send these words by request
of the Gospodar Rupert, beloved of our mountaineers.
When the Voivode Peter Vissarion made his journey to the great nation
to whom we looked in our hour of need, it was necessary that he
should go in secret. The Turk was at our gates, and full of the
malice of baffled greed. Already he had tried to arrange a marriage
with the Voivodin, so that in time to come he, as her husband, might
have established a claim to the inheritance of the land. Well he
knew, as do all men, that the Blue Mountaineers owe allegiance to
none that they themselves do not appoint to rulership. This has been
the history in the past. But now and again an individual has arisen
or come to the front adapted personally for such government as this
land requires. And so the Lady Teuta, Voivodin of the Blue
Mountains, was put for her proper guarding in the charge of myself as
Head of the Eastern Church in the Land of the Blue Mountains, steps
being taken in such wise that no capture of her could be effected by
unscrupulous enemies of this our Land. This task and guardianship
was gladly held as an honour by all concerned. For the Voivodin
Teuta of Vissarion must be taken as representing in her own person
the glory of the old Serb race, inasmuch as being the only child of
the Voivode Vissarion, last male of his princely race—the race which
ever, during the ten centuries of our history, unflinchingly gave
life and all they held for the protection, safety, and well-being of
the Land of the Blue Mountains. Never during those centuries had any
one of the race been known to fail in patriotism, or to draw back
from any loss or hardship enjoined by high duty or stress of need.
Moreover, this was the race of that first Voivode Vissarion, of whom,
in legend, it was prophesied that he—once known as “The Sword of
Freedom,” a giant amongst men—would some day, when the nation had
need of him, come forth from his water-tomb in the lost Lake of Reo,
and lead once more the men of the Blue Mountains to lasting victory.
This noble race, then, had come to be known as the last hope of the
Land. So that when the Voivode was away on his country’s service,
his daughter should be closely guarded. Soon after the Voivode had
gone, it was reported that he might be long delayed in his
diplomacies, and also in studying the system of Constitutional
Monarchy, for which it had been hoped to exchange our imperfect
political system. I may say inter alia that he was mentioned as to
be the first king when the new constitution should have been
arranged.
Then a great misfortune came on us; a terrible grief overshadowed the
land. After a short illness, the Voivodin Teuta Vissarion died
mysteriously of a mysterious ailment. The grief of the mountaineers
was so great that it became necessary for the governing Council to
warn them not to allow their sorrow to be seen. It was imperatively
necessary that the fact of her death should be kept secret. For
there were dangers and difficulties of several kinds. In the first
place it was advisable that even her father should be kept in
ignorance of his terrible loss. It was well known that he held her
as the very core of his heart and that if he should hear of her
death, he would be too much prostrated to be able to do the intricate
and delicate work which he had undertaken. Nay, more: he would
never remain afar off, under the sad circumstances, but would
straightway return, so as to be in the land where she lay. Then
suspicions would crop up, and the truth must shortly be known afield,
with the inevitable result that the Land would become the very centre
of a war of many nations.
In the second place, if the Turks were to know that the race of
Vissarion was becoming extinct, this would encourage them to further
aggression, which would become immediate should they find out that
the Voivode was himself away. It was well known that they were
already only suspending hostilities until a fitting opportunity
should arise. Their desire for aggression had become acute after the
refusal of the nation, and of the girl herself, that she should
become a wife of the Sultan.
The dead girl had been buried in the Crypt of the church of St. Sava,
and day after day and night after night, singly and in parties, the
sorrowing mountaineers had come to pay devotion and reverence at her
tomb. So many had wished to have a last glimpse of her face that the
Vladika had, with my own consent as Archbishop, arranged for a glass
cover to be put over the stone coffin wherein her body lay.
After a little time, however, there came a belief to all concerned in
the guarding of the body—these, of course, being the priests of
various degrees of dignity appointed to the task—that the Voivodin
was not really dead, but only in a strangely-prolonged trance.
Thereupon a new complication arose. Our mountaineers are, as perhaps
you know, by nature deeply suspicious—a characteristic of all brave
and self-sacrificing people who are jealous of their noble heritage.
Having, as they believed, seen the girl dead, they might not be
willing to accept the fact of her being alive. They might even
imagine that there was on foot some deep, dark plot which was, or
might be, a menace, now or hereafter, to their independence. In any
case, there would be certain to be two parties on the subject, a
dangerous and deplorable thing in the present condition of affairs.
As the trance, or catalepsy, whatever it was, continued for many
days, there had been ample time for the leaders of the Council, the
Vladika, the priesthood represented by the Archimandrite of Spazac,
myself as Archbishop and guardian of the Voivodin in her father’s
absence, to consult as to a policy to be observed in case of the girl
awaking. For in such case the difficulty of the situation would be
multiplied indefinitely. In the secret chambers of St. Sava’s we had
many secret meetings, and were finally converging on agreement when
the end of the trance came.
The girl awoke!
She was, of course, terribly frightened when she found herself in a
tomb in the Crypt. It was truly fortunate that the great candles
around her tomb had been kept lighted, for their light mitigated the
horror of the place. Had she waked in darkness, her reason might
have become unseated.
She was, however, a very noble girl; brave, with extraordinary will,
and resolution, and self-command, and power of endurance. When she
had been taken into one of the secret chambers of the church, where
she was warmed and cared for, a hurried meeting was held by the
Vladika, myself, and the chiefs of the National Council. Word had
been at once sent to me of the joyful news of her recovery; and with
the utmost haste I came, arriving in time to take a part in the
Council.
At the meeting the Voivodin was herself present, and full confidence
of the situation was made to her. She herself proposed that the
belief in her death should be allowed to prevail until the return of
her father, when all could be effectively made clear. To this end
she undertook to submit to the terrific
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